How African American Culture Influences Families

 
Cultural background may impact various aspects of family functioning, such as parenting. For example, Labella (2018) suggests that African American culture and its history affect parental emotional socialization in families. Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad defined emotional socialization as “the process by which children learn cultural norms for expressing and regulating emotion” (as cited in Labella, 2018, p. 3). It appears that parents play a critical role in that process, as almost all aspects of children’s development are associated with their mothers’ and fathers’ examples. Emotional socialization is an essential factor of social-emotional development, and parents commonly attempt to teach their children implicit and explicit emotional competencies. Studies provide evidence that celebration and restriction of emotions can freely coexist in African American families, reflecting the impact of traditional values and the historical background of slavery and discrimination (Labella, 2018). Thereby, children in those families receive teaching on emotions inherent to African American culture, which further influences their development.

In addition, parenting is a much more significant concept in African American families compared to other cultures. According to Smith et al. (2019), African Americans, including parents and children, have “significantly stronger preferences for cultural and communal activities at home and at school than for individualistic and competitive activities” (p. 1240). Most likely, it means that African American children primarily socialize at home with their family members rather than their school peers. The reason for that is the individualistic nature of mainstream cultures. African American culture is based on familial bonds, kinship, and mutual interdependence of the family members (Smith et al., 2019). Therefore, the culture under discussion influences families on multiple levels, making parenting a much more significant aspect of children’s development compared to other cultures.

Working with the African American Population
Human services can apply the information presented in the previous sections when working with the African American population. People who require the aid of human services usually come from diverse cultures, having different values and beliefs, and social workers should keep that in mind to provide assistance effectively. Suppose a family comes to human services claiming their son struggles to make interpersonal connections with his peers and find friends at school. In that case, human services representatives might need to remember that African American culture implies the prevalence of cultural and communal activities over competitiveness and individualism (Smith et al., 2019). It could be wise and practical to ask the parents about their son’s activities and ask the child about his peers and their activity preferences. If those differ from what the son likes to do, he should be advised to try a different direction while seeking friends. The child’s struggle may be caused by cultural differences between him and his schoolmates, meaning he should seek friends who share his interests.

In addition, the research findings imply that human services should be discreet and considerate when working with African American families. The culture under discussion has been developing under the influence of the historical background associated with slavery and discrimination, which means that this fact may still trouble African Americans (Labella, 2018). Therefore, people working with them should choose words and ways to explain particular concepts carefully and behave politically correctly.