The Absence of Fathers Contribute to Anti-social Behavior with Young Black Males - Literature review Example

The Absence of Fathers Contribute to Anti-social Behavior with Young Black Males Introduction The father is one of the foundations of a family and is considered as an important role even outside the household and in the society. This is due to the traditional perspective wherein society is dominated by the males. The fact may have changed until the present time, but it cannot be denied that a patriarchal society still exists today. The history tells how society was formed in the past as males once dominated the group and created the mores to follow (Coffen, 2007: 64). Tradition has set forth the importance of a father as the strength and foundation of a social unit like a family that builds a society. Within the family, the father serves as the foundation and strength as he provides the needs of his wife and their children. His role is not limited in providing economic and financial security, but also to assist the mother in taking care of their children. He also provides emotional support to his wife and serves as a model of what it takes to be a man (Millard, 1984: 78; Lee, 1982: 54). The traditional role of a father may have somewhat changed as time passes by that may have lead to the existence of behavioural problems being faced by children especially the young males. Literature Review Questions Several studies would provide a good background regarding the importance of fathers in growing children. Several questions must be answered by the past studies and must be explained thoroughly. First, the literature must answer “What are the typical behaviours of growing children?” The idea of having certain behavioural set can give a firm understanding regarding the specific topic of the current study. Second, the literature must explain “How male children behave while growing up?” as the second question focuses on male subjects only. Third, the review must give a firm background that answers the question “What are the common disruptive and anti-social behaviours of growing children?” as the social negativities must be dealt with. Fourth, the question “What are the discriminations being faced by African Americans?” must also be tackled as their race faces several challenges regarding equality and also affects the growing-up children. Lastly, the importance of a father in growing-up children must also be dealt with. Methodology The study will be conducted using secondary sources in explaining the impacts of fatherless young black males and their anti-social behaviour. The gathered data from secondary sources will be connected to the primary data that will be obtained by the author. Later on, both the primary and secondary data will be analyzed and discussion will be backed-up by literature. Method of Data Collection The secondary data will be obtained via electronic databases and online scholarly journals. The primary data will be gathered by doing a survey on African American males, their parents and guardians. Interviews will also be conducted with psychologists and guidance counsellors regarding the behaviour of fatherless African American young males. Books and past studies will be used to explain the results of the study. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria All fatherless African American young males of ages six years to 19 years of age will be categorized and included in the study. Data will not be collected from African American young females and White American young males are not included in the scope of the study. The mothers of the African American young males in the study will also be considered as source of data. Three experts will also be interviewed to strengthen the understanding on the topic, and the experts will be as follows: a school teacher, a psychologist and a guidance counsellor. Literature Review Social behaviours have significant effects on learning and development of people especially children according to Parker and Asher which include positive social behaviour, friendship behaviour, and conflicting behaviour (McClellan and Kinsey, 1999). The way that children connect to their peers can greatly contribute to their development as they explore the world. According to Clark and Ladd, being positive social behaviour means being adjusted to the connections with other people and helping them as having cooperation gives them the benefits (Knafo and Plomin, 2006). According to Eisenberg et al., positive or pro-social behaviours cover the following actions: “sharing personal resources, providing instrumental help, and supporting others emotionally in times of distress,” (Knafo, Israel and Ebstein, 2011: 54). The good attitude towards peers may change because of several negative factors. As such, social behaviour can be negative and lead to crimes when the children and youth feel the neglect. Youth crimes have been rampant in the Western nations like the killings in South London wherein children possessed firearms. Having deadly weapons and becoming a gang member raises the self-esteem of children and to gain respect as they adjust to their social lives. Such troubles exist as the children especially boys come from broken families. The behaviour can be rooted from having no father to guide and to love them. Their emotional turmoil drives them into violence and anti-social behaviours (Smith, 2007: 3). The example just shows how important parents are in growing-up children. In the last century, the family socialization of children composed the traditional theories of psychology. For decades, babies are considered as blank slates that must be taught by their parents about values, education and society. The parents are considered as the first teachers as learning starts at home. The wielding of children is a combination of nature and nurture, but people focus on the factor of the environment in developing the growing children. As years passed by, the psychoanalytic theories become cognitive social learning theory as psychologists find out how active learning can effectively affect the learning capabilities of children and the challenges they face during socialization. In the recent years, several studies have shown how family interactions determine the social behaviour of children and how their society and environment also cause stresses and may also help them in honing themselves (Maccoby, 2000: 3). The results of the study had shown how important parents are in growing-up of youths. Without proper guidance, young people may go the wrong direction. According to O’Neill (2002), children who do not have biological fathers with them have the more tendency to be impoverished, are more prone to school problems, have troubles in dealing with other people, get sick more frequently, have higher risk of experiencing abuse and have the higher tendency to run away from their respective homes than children with both parents present. For teenagers having no fathers, they may experience more sexual health problems, have higher tendency to have children at their teenage years, are more prawn to offend people, have the greater risk to vices such as smoking and drinking alcohol than the teens with both parents guiding them. As such, the well-being of children are healthy and balanced when they have both parents to guide and support them. They are able to perform well at school, get along with their peers, avoid vices and even help others emotionally (Allen and Daly, 2007). The existence of antisocial behaviour among youths can be seen through statistical data like in the USA, the rate of illegitimate children is continuously increasing. Birth rate outside marriage increased from 14.1 per one thousand during the 1950s became 43.8 per one thousand during the 90s which means the increase is about 310%. Illegitimate children became more than one million in 1990 and unmarried teenagers have an increased rate of 337%. Many scholars relate the drastic increase in divorce and children outside marriage to the greatly increasing violence, homicide, suicide, drug abuse and even sexual abuse among youths. In terms of family structure, children with two parents have the support and care of both the models of being soft from the mother and the loving support of the sturdy father that balance the social and emotional needs of the children (Vitz, 1999). Since nowadays, divorce and cohabitation are increasing, the cases of disruptive behaviour also increase and the traditional family structure is not as intense as before. Also the existence of both parents can greatly avoid the social problems and hazards that may happen to growing children as they seek care and support. Having no father is not the only factor that poses developmental risks to children and youths. The laws of the land, the society and the environment may take control upon the school performance, emotional stability, social life and behaviour of children and teens. There are protective and promotive factors in the lives of the youths. Their characteristics can be strictly promotive or protective or both. Promotive factors can prevent the children from being harmed by the environment and laws through acting upon the psychosocial threats. On the other hand, protective factors catalyze the levelling of risks and the possible impacts. In line with that, racial discrimination is a risk factor since the environment is not conducive to learning and promotes no support and no care. Adolescents may engage in unwanted practices when not supervised by parents. They may also be delinquents when their peers bully them leaving them unhappy, timid and lonely. Teachers also affect the behaviour of the youths especially in negative ways when the former do not show any genuine concern and care for their students (Wong, Eccles and Sameroff, 2003). Neglect and discrimination may result to disruptive behaviour in the same way lack of support affect the motivation of the youths. Racial discrimination can also affect the behaviour of the African American young males as their race has been enslaved for centuries as proven by history. Until now, racial inequality is still present despite of the efforts in minimizing the gaps among races and treating all people fairly (Anderson, 2006). African Americans truly came from the Africans enslaved by the Westerners that later on migrated to the America. Data Analysis and Discussion of Findings The data from surveys and interviews will be compared with the data and results from secondary sources and no statistical analysis will be used as the study is done in a qualitative method. The literature will be used to support the results and explain the outcome of the study about the antisocial behaviours of Young African American males. Secondary sources like online scholarly journals, books and newspapers can support and explain the concepts underlying the results gathered from surveys and interviews. Past results from already done studies can be used to establish and support the claims and generalizations of the author of the paper. The survey questions and interview questions must also be included at the discussion section to guide the readers in understanding and interpreting the results. Implications for Practice The outcome of the study can help psychologists, guidance counsellors, school teachers and even parents in the process of dealing with the African American young males. They can guide them and treat them with positive attitude to help them cope up with their situations and slowly turn away from violence and hazards of the society. Also the lawmakers will benefit from the study as they can make laws and rehabilitation programs appropriate for the specific cases. Proposal Surveys, interviews and secondary sources like online journals will be used to explain the disruptive and antisocial behaviours of fatherless African American young males. Laws, environment and family contribute to the well-being of the young boys, but having both parents can help them with their daily lives and development. The claims on the importance of parents especially the father will be proved or disproved by the results of the study. Research Question The study will answer the question “How does the absence of fathers contribute to anti social behaviour with young black males?” The focus will be on the African American young males who have disruptive behaviour as rooted to their fatherless family. Several factors will be revealed in the study on how traditions and the presence of a male parent can alleviate the behavioural challenges being faced of African American boys. Methodology A school teacher, a psychologist, and a school teacher will be interviewed regarding the behaviours of fatherless African American boys. Then the gathered data will be compared with the data to be gained from surveys among parents of the subjects and the African American boys themselves. Lastly, past researches will be used to back-up the analysis of the results. Justification for Proposed Methodology The study will be done in a qualitative approach which means statistics and numerical approaches will not be included in the analysis. The interviews will be done with the experts as their careers cover the topic of the study. The surveys will be done as many parents and the African American males can give more accurate data as they are the very concern of the research. Online journals and past studies can greatly give accurate data as they have already been measured and analyzed by past scientists and scholars. Proposed Sampling Procedure The survey will have three questions composed of the behaviours of the subjects, their perceptions on the impact of having no father and how do they cope up with the lack of father. The African American young males of ages six years to nineteen years old will be selected randomly and for each age such as six years old, seven years old until nineteen years old, each year must have 50 respondents. The parents will also answer the survey but with different but related questions such as observable behaviours of their children, how do they raise their children and what do they do to make-up for not having a husband and father to their children. The three experts to be interviewed will face a 30-minute audio-recorded interview regarding the topic. They may cite some secondary sources and expound them with their explanations based on their experiences. Ethics Ethics is about the wrongness and rightness of an action and much like morality. In the case of the study, ethics must be observed by respecting the privacy of the subjects and participants. The information must not be given to unreliable parties and participants must be able to answer the survey anonymously. Very sensitive questions must not be pushed through as much as possible to respect the privacy of people concerned. The author of the study must not force people to become participants for the research as getting involved with the study must be purely voluntary. Recommendation Quantitative method can also be used for further verification of the reliability of the data in the research and intertwined with the follow-up qualitative approach in learning about the contribution of having no father to the disruptive behaviour of young African American boys. Other factors must also be considered besides the effects of having no father to support the young boys in growing-up. Young girls can also be the subject of having only single parent to support them and compare the study with the existing knowledge on the behaviour of fatherless boys. The nationality and race can also affect the behaviour since racial issues are seen throughout history and are proven to affect the behaviour of people. Conclusion The study will prove how the present problem on family structure leads to emotional and behavioural turmoil to growing-up children especially to African American young males. They may turn to gangs, violence, and vices just to cope up for the inner emptiness they experience and to look for the support and respect that they need. Their race also has an added effect to the disruptive behaviour since the complexion is a historical issue that enslaved them for centuries before they are able to slowly fight for equality. Also having no father means the young boys do not have the model of what truly a responsible man in the society must do and instead they get to learn from the wrong sources. Bibliography Allen, S. and Dally, K. (2007) ‘The Effects of Father Involvement: An Updated Research Summary of the Evidence’ Centre for Families, Work & Well-Being, University of Guelph. pp. 1- 58. http://www.fira.ca/cms/documents/29/Effects_of_Father_Involvement.pdf [accessed 9 January 2012]. Anderson, W. (2006) Fighting Racial Discrimination: Treating All Americans Fairly Under the Law. USA: Rosen Pub Group. Coffen, R. W. (2007) Wake Up Your Bible Study: Getting the Most from Your Time with God. USA: Autumn House Publishing. Knafo, A. and Plomin, R. (2006) ‘Prosocial Behavior From Early to Middle Childhood: Genetic and Environmental Influences on Stability and Change’ Developmental Psychology. 42(5) pp. 771–786.http://pluto.huji.ac.il/~mshayo/public_html/Ebstein3_Prosocial_behavior.pdf [accessed 9 January 2012]. Knafo, A., Israel, S. and Ebstein, R. (2011) ‘Heritability of Children’s Prosocial Behavior and Differential Susceptibility to Parenting by Variation in the Dopamine Receptor D4 Gene’ Development and Psychopathology. 23 pp. 53-67. http://psychology.huji.ac.il/upload/articles/Knafo.pdf [accessed 9 January 2012]. Lee, G. R. (1982) Family Structure and Interaction: a Comparative Analysis. USA: University of Minnesota Press. Maccoby, E. E. (2000) ‘Parenting and its Effects on Children: On Reading and Misreading Behavior Genetics’ Annual Review of Psychology. 51 pp. 1-27. http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.1 [accessed 9 January 2012]. McClellan, D. E. and Kinsey, S. J. (1999) ‘Children’s Social Behavior in Relation to Participation in Mixed-Age or Same-Age Classrooms’ ECRP. 1(1) pp. 1-27. http://www.peelearlyyears.com/pdf/Childrens%20social%20behaviour%20in%20relation%20to%20Participation%20in%20Mixed%20Age%20or%20Same%20Age%20Classroo-ms.pdf [accessed 9 January 2012]. Millard, D. M. (1984) Daily Living with a Handicapped Child. Great Britain: Spottiswoode Ballantyne Ltd. O’Neill, R. (2002) ‘Experiments in Living: The Fatherless Family’ CIVITAS. pp. 1-20. http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/Experiments.pdf [accessed 9 January 2012]. Smith, I. D. (2007) ‘Being Tough on the Causes of Crime: Tackling Family Breakdown to Prevent Youth Crime’ Social Justice Family Group. pp. 1-15. http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/client/downloads/causes_of_crime.pdf [accessed 9 January 2012]. Vitz, P. (1999) ‘Family Decline: The Findings of Social Science’ Catholic Education Research Center. http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/marriage/mf0002.html [accessed 9 January 2012]. Wong, C. A., Eccles, J. S. and Sameroff, A. (2003) ‘The Influence of Ethnic Discrimination and Ethnic Identification on African American Adolescents’ School and Socioemotional Adjustment’ Journal of Personality. 71(6) pp. 1197-1232. http://www2.uni-jena.de/svw/igc/studies/ss03/wong_eccles_samerhoff.pdf [accessed January 2012]. Read More