Internal and External Family Support Patterns that Promote Stability in Black Families / Harriette Pipes McAdoo.

This study focused on the factors that urban and suburban black families have found to be supportive of stability and mobility. All of the families involved were middle income blacks. They all had school aged children under 18 years of age living in the home. Three hundred and five parents were interviewed representing 178 family units. The sample had 49% urban and 90% suburban families. The family structure forms were 93% nuclear. In social economic ratings, half were in the upper class and half in the middle class. The mean family income was $20,000 for males, and $12,000 for females. Four mobility patterns over three generations were found: 1)62% were newly middle class from two generations of working class, 2)23% had lower class grandparents, working class parents, and had become middle class themselves, 3)9% had been middle class for three generations, and 4)6% had parents who were born working class and had moved to middle class. Higher education was valued by the families, with 41% having graduate training beyond college. Both parents had approximately the same education, except fathers had the most advanced degrees. All but one of the females worked, but half of their mothers did not work. The kin help system had been maintained before, during and after mobility. Help with friends was exchanged in areas of emotional support and child care. The family was the primary source of aid in both sites, for both socio-economic status classes, and for all mobility patterns. (Author/AM)

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