Extended Family Support Networks of Caribbean Black Adults in the United States

Disrupting Monolithic Thinking about Black Women and Their Mental Health: Does Stress Exposure Explain Intersectional Ethnic, Nativity, and Socioeconomic Differences?

Guided by the intersectionality framework and social stress theory, this study provides a sociological analysis of Black women's psychological health. Using data from the National Survey of American Life (N=2972), we first examine U.S. Black women's psychological health through the intersections of their ethnicity, nativity, and socioeconomic status. Next, we assess the extent to which stress exposure (e.g., discrimination, financial strain, and negative interactions with family members) explains any discovered status differences in psychological health among Black women. Results reveal that foreign-born Afro-Caribbean women living in the United States experience a mental health advantage vis-á-vis their U.S.-born African American female counterparts. In addition, college-educated African American women experience fewer depressive symptoms but similar rates of lifetime PTSD relative to African American women without a college education. Last, though stress exposure was associated with poor mental health, it did not explain status differences in mental health. Overall, this study reveals that Black women, despite shared gendered and racialized oppression, are not a monolithic group, varying along other dimensions of stratification. The results suggest that other stress exposures and psychological resources should be explored in future work examining status differences in mental health among Black women.

‘It Just Feels Like an Invasion’: Black First-Episode Psychosis Patients’ Experiences With Coercive Intervention and Its Influence on Help-Seeking Behaviours

Studies from the United States and United Kingdom show that Black patients are disproportionately diagnosed with psychosis and receive excess coercive medical intervention. There has been little discussion of this topic in Canada, and of how coercive interventions may have influenced Black patient attitudes towards mental health services. To address these issues, semi-structured interviews were administered to five Black men with first-episode psychosis (FEP) to (a) explore their experiences with coercive interventions and (b) describe how these experiences may have influenced help-seeking behaviours. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyze the data. Four core themes and four additional themes emerged from the interviews. Patients described loneliness, not being heard, police contact and forced medication as influencing their attitudes towards mental health care. Further research is needed to develop reparative strategies to encourage reflection about and awareness of coercive intervention among Black FEP patients.

Racial/Ethnic Variation in Family Support: African Americans, Black Caribbeans and Non-Latino Whites

OBJECTIVE

This study examined racial and ethnic differences in the receipt and provision of instrumental family support.

BACKGROUND

Extended families provide significant levels of emotional and instrumental support across the life course. Despite their importance, extended family relationships and the assistance they provide are largely neglected in the literature. Further, questions remain concerning cultural variation in family support relationships and inconsistent findings on racial differences in family support in prior investigations.

METHOD

This study relied on data from the National Survey of American Life-Reinterview (n=3,483) to investigate the provision and receipt of instrumental support from extended family among African Americans, Black Caribbeans, and non-Latino Whites and within high- and low-income categories for each group. Eight key measures of instrumental family support are examined: receiving and providing transportation, help with chores, financial assistance, and help during an illness.

RESULTS

African Americans and Black Caribbeans share similar profiles of providing and receiving instrumental family support. Both populations receive and provide assistance more frequently than do non-Latino Whites. Similarly, analyses stratified by income indicated that for low-income and high-income groups, African American and Black Caribbeans are similar to one another, and at each income category, both groups received and provided support more frequently than non-Latino Whites.

CONCLUSION

Study findings are discussed in relation to conceptual and methodological differences in assessing Black-White differences across studies of family support. Attention to these issues and the specific contexts for receiving/providing family support (emergency vs. routine; intergenerational vs. extended) will help clarify inconsistent findings across studies.

African Immigrant’s Women Experiences on Extended Family Relations

African immigrants are increasingly migrating to high-income countries, including Canada, in search of a better life. These immigrants often face several challenges, such as keeping healthy ties with their extended families back home and in a new socio-cultural context. We present findings from a participatory action research (PAR) study of Sub-Saharan African immigrants and refugees (SSAIRs) living in Alberta, Canada. Using the theoretical framework of postcolonial feminism and transnationalism, in this study we investigated how cultural roots and transnational ties affect newcomer transition and integration to provide information on the female perspectives of SSAIRs. The results of the study indicate that maintaining relational ties with one’s extended family in the homeland has been highlighted as both a source of support—providing moral, social, religious, and cultural support during the integration processes—and strain, with participants noting its impact on their integration processes, such as delaying the ability to restructure life and to successfully plan their life financially. Our findings outline various implications of the existing gaps and recommendations for policymakers and community stakeholders for future improvement. Overall, our study findings affirm the importance of extended family relations for African immigrants living in Canada.

Beyond the Household: Caribbean Families and Biocultural Models of Alloparenting

Alloparental or extramaternal care is an integral aspect of human childrearing. This behavior has been explored both as an extension of the primary mother–infant dyad that evolved to meet the demands of altricial offspring and as an economic exchange of energy and resources. Much of this research centers on foraging or small-scale communities and positions the household as the central unit through which to explore negotiations of care. In this review, I use evidence from Black Caribbean communities living in industrialized countries to challenge the broad applicability of the analytical model of the bounded household and to question whether our current articulations of theory and empirical assessments of extramaternal care are well suited to investigations of these behaviors in the vast majority of contemporary human populations. Alloparental practices in the Caribbean reflect dynamic responses to maternal migration and the local influence of global labor markets. The children who remain at home experience variability in the care received from their surrogate parents. The dynamic aspect of the care practices enacted by these transnational families reveals the behavioral flexibility that has been integral to human survival.

Race and Objective Social Isolation: Older African Americans, Black Caribbeans, and Non-Hispanic Whites

OBJECTIVES

Social isolation is a major risk factor for poor physical and mental health among older adults. This study investigates the correlates of objective social isolation among older African Americans, Black Caribbean immigrants, and non-Hispanic Whites.

METHODS

The analysis is based on the older subsample (n = 1,439) of the National Survey of American Life. There are eight indicators of objective social isolation: no contact with neighbors, neighborhood groups, friends, family members, religious congregation members, not being married and no romantic involvement, living alone, and not being a parent.

RESULTS

Very few older Americans are socially isolated from family and friends. Non-Hispanic Whites are more likely than both African Americans and Black Caribbeans to live alone, to be childless, and have limited contact with religious congregation members. For both African Americans and Black Caribbeans, being female is protective against social isolation, but for both populations, men are more likely to be married or have a romantic partner. For African Americans, residing in the South is also protective against social isolation.

DISCUSSION

This analysis provides greater clarity on racial and ethnic differences in social isolation among older adults, as well as within-group differences in objective social isolation among African Americans and Black Caribbeans.

Social isolation from family and friends and mental health among African Americans and Black Caribbeans

Social isolation is a significant social problem in the United States that many health and welfare organizations have begun to acknowledge and address. Unfortunately, extremely little research focuses on social isolation among ethnic minority populations. This study investigated the association between social isolation from family and friends and the mental health of African Americans and Black Caribbeans. Using data from the National Survey of American Life (2001-2003), we explore 2 indicators of mental health: depressive symptoms (CES-D) and serious psychological distress (Kessler 6). The negative binomial regression analysis examined both objective isolation (infrequent contact) and subjective isolation (lack of emotional closeness) from family and friends. Overall study findings indicated that infrequent contact (objective social isolation) and diminished emotional closeness (subjective social isolation) from family and friends were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and serious psychological distress for both African Americans and Black Caribbeans. The addition of subjective social isolation to regression models attenuated the association between objective social isolation and depressive symptoms for both groups. However, the addition of subjective social isolation attenuated the association between serious psychological distress for African Americans but not for Black Caribbeans. These findings contribute to the very limited, but growing body of research on the negative association between social isolation and the mental and physical health of ethnic minorities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Ethnic and Gender Differences in Family Social Support among Black Adolescents

This study examines black adolescents' reports of the most helpful types of social support that they receive from and provide to family members, and whether family support exchanges vary by ethnicity (African American vs. Black Caribbean) and gender. Data for this study are from the National Survey of American Life Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A), a national, probability sample of African American and Black Caribbean youth (ages 13-17). Overall, youth reported financial support, followed by emotional assistance and practical support as the most helpful types of support that they received. Practical and emotional assistance characterized the most commonly reported types of support that they provided to family members. Black Caribbean adolescents were more likely than African American adolescents to report financial and practical assistance as the most helpful types of support that they received from family members; no ethnic differences were observed in the provision of support to relatives. There were no significant gender differences in the receipt of support, but adolescent girls reported greater involvement in providing emotional support and caregiving than adolescent boys. The results of this paper reveal that African American and Black Caribbean adolescents are involved in a complex pattern of reciprocal support exchanges with their extended family members. Study findings also reinforce the importance of research focused on racial/ethnic and gender differences in family support exchanges in order to develop a more nuanced understanding of family support behaviors within these groups.

Variations in Social Network Type Membership Among Older African Americans, Caribbean Blacks, and Non-Hispanic Whites

OBJECTIVES

This study examined race differences in the probability of belonging to a specific social network typology of family, friends, and church members.

METHOD

Samples of African Americans, Caribbean blacks, and non-Hispanic whites aged 55+ were drawn from the National Survey of American Life. Typology indicators related to social integration and negative interactions with family, friendship, and church networks were used. Latent class analysis was used to identify typologies, and latent class multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the influence of race, and interactions between race and age, and race and education on typology membership.

RESULTS

Four network typologies were identified: optimal (high social integration, low negative interaction), family-centered (high social integration within primarily the extended family network, low negative interaction), strained (low social integration, high negative interaction), and ambivalent (high social integration and high negative interaction). Findings for race and age and race and education interactions indicated that the effects of education and age on typology membership varied by race.

DISCUSSION

Overall, the findings demonstrate how race interacts with age and education to influence the probability of belonging to particular network types. A better understanding of the influence of race, education, and age on social network typologies will inform future research and theoretical developments in this area.

Ethnic and Nativity Differences in the Social Support-Physical Health Association Among Black Americans

Despite an abundant literature on social support and health, relatively less is known about how support and its impact on physical health vary within the Black population. Using the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), this paper examines which sources and types of support are associated with physical health among African Americans, U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks and foreign-born Caribbean Blacks. The results showed that for U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks, being married was especially beneficial to health. Closeness to family was associated with better health while negative interactions with family members was associated with worse health for African Americans and foreign-born Caribbean Blacks. Different sources of instrumental support affected all three groups. Overall, the findings reveal that, among Black Americans, the association between social support and physical health is contingent upon ethnicity, nativity, and the ways in which social support and health are operationalized.