Meaning of Family in 2 American Families The meani

Family Interviews: Meaning of Family

The meaning of family as a construct and as an entity can vary from one racial, ethnic and cultural group to another. To examine this variance, interviews with two American families were conducted. One family was an African-American single-parent household in which a working mother, a maternal grandmother, and three children were found. The second family was a Hispanic-American family with working parents and two children. Both families live in an urban community area; all children attend a public elementary school and receive a reduced price lunch due to family income levels. However, both families are economically self-sufficient, if not precisely prosperous. Both rent their residences and live in multi-family units.

In discussing what "family" meant to Ms. Jones, the single African-American mother, it was revealed that "kinship" relations for this family are extensive and broadly defined. As Wesley (1999) commented, many African-American families have extensive kinship ties forged out of necessity; extended rather than nuclear families are the norm among members of this cultural group. Ms. Jones noted that she grew up in a multi-generational household and that here children are also living in such a setting; their home is also home to a first cousin whose mother cannot care for her and who is in the custody of Ms. Jones' mother, who lives with the family.

Further, Ms. Jones noted that many of the African-American families

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he U.S., was less comfortable than Ms. Garcia with the distance that has developed between this couple and their families in Mexico. Mr. Garcia said that he missed his mother (his sole surviving parent), but that two or so visits each year were "enough" for the present time; however, he did note that he would like to own a second home in Mexico so that later on he could spend more time there when he retired, but his first priority is buying a home in the U.S. for his family. This Hispanic-American family also stated that they do spend time with other Hispanic-Americans and that they consciously attempt to retain their Hispanic culture and language - despite the fact that neither of their children is in a bilingual education program. As Shaull and Gramann (198) commented, many Hispanics in the U.S. who are first-generation Residents of this country retain close ties to other Hispanic immigrants. Both of these families have a clear, personalized understanding of what "family" means to them. In the case of the Jones family, an extended network of kin and "kith" seems to be in place that significantly expands upon the blood relatives living in the Jones household. In the case of the Garcias, a less broad definition of family

Category: Psychology - M