Session: Centering Black Fathers in Social Work Research: A Strength-Based Exploration of Parenting Experiences and Contexts (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Background and Purpose: Black fathers have been increasingly shown to be active in youths' lives, yet they grow up and parent in contexts often characterized by unique cultural dynamics and numerous structural barriers. Much is left to be learned to advance racial and social justice for Black families. Research focused explicitly on Black fathers can provide novel insights into fathers' needs, strengths and supports, and help better define issues relevant to interventions, which, in turn may lead to better recruitment and retention. From a strengths perspective, our purpose is to broaden our understanding of Black fathers, and offer unique insights into a population that often experiences considerable racial and social injustice.

Methods: Paper One was informed by grounded theory methods based on individual interviews from a convenience sample of 30 African American fathers in the South-Atlantic region who had sons at-risk for developing aggression and depression. Paper Two employed a direct content analysis based on focus groups and individual interviews with 28 nonresident Black fathers recruited in local child support offices, barbershops, gyms, fatherhood programs, community agencies and via sponsored ads on Facebook. Paper Three utilized convenience and snowball sampling, and mixed methods to examine parenting self-efficacy among 110 nonresidential African American fathers recruited from 8 fatherhood programs in the northeastern region of the US. Paper Four utilized a modified grounded theory approach based on a sample of 8 nonresidential African American fathers purposively recruited from the dataset described in Paper Three. Paper Five utilized linear regression models based on surveys from 75 Black fathers living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin who are expecting a baby or have an infant.

Results: Paper One highlights African American fathers' descriptions of structural, family, and individual challenges faced by boys and fathers, such as racism, finances and providing, and relationships with their own fathers. Paper Two identified and explored four processes of leisure preferences among nonresident African American fathers: psychological, biological, social, and behavioral. Paper Three highlights the complexity of parental self-efficacy noting fathers simultaneously felt most efficacious regarding the rewards of fathering and least regarding managing parenting demands. Qualitative findings highlight factors that support or impede the development of parenting self-efficacy. Paper Four highlights nonresidential African American fathers' accounts of barriers to, and supports for involvement across 5 ecological contexts: the self-context, the co-parenting context, the family context, the social and community context, and the societal context. Paper Five found that fathers' depressive symptoms were negatively related to attachment to the baby and mother-father relationship quality. Relationship quality mediated the link between fathers' involvement in pregnancy and attachment to their child; it also moderated the relationship between depressive symptoms and fathers' attachment to their child/baby.

Implications: Collectively, these papers advance scientific knowledge by centering the strengths and perspectives of, and knowledge from Black fathers themselves. The findings provide unique insights about Black fathers' parenting, relationships, needs, and supports, which counter damaging myths that too often contribute to ill-fitted interventions and inequitable policies. Implications for social work interventions, research and practice are discussed.