Understanding and Assessment of Intragroup Dynamics in Family Foster Care: African American Families.

Abstract

Despite the implementation of permanency planning, passage of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-272), and the recent increase in the use of home-based services to strengthen family functioning, the number of children placed in out-of-home care has increased significantly. One national estimate documented a 29.6% increase in the number of children in out-of-home care: from 280,000 in 1980 to 360,000 in 1989 [Tatara 1992]. A recent analysis of the characteristics of children in care estimated that 12.4% (42,160) of the children had long-term family foster care as their primary placement goal [Tatara 1992: 107-108]. Because of social problems such as substance abuse, family breakdown, and mental illness, an alarming number of children will be reared to adulthood by foster parents.A disproportionate number of the children who will be reared in long-term family foster care will be African American or members of another ethnic minority group [Tatara 1992]. If these children are to experience adequate spiritual and intellectual development within the foster care system, cultural identification, ethnicity, and social class must be integrated with all other placement considerations. As discussed by Stevenson et al. [1992], knowledge, attitudes, and skills are equally important components of ethnically competent practice.Because it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the multicultural implications involved in placement of all children of ethnic minority descent, we will focus on one particular group to throw light on all; as Molefi Asante [1991] stated, Afrocentricity is a part of multiculturalism. By describing certain African American psychosocial realities, we may be better able to see how these realities fit into our multicultural society. This article discusses aspects of practice that must be addressed in providing ethnically sensitive services to African American children and families in family foster care.CULTURALLY COMPETENT CASE ASSESSMENTThe assessment phase is critical to successful placement and effective case planning in family foster care. Being culturally competent in this work requires skills in thinking cross-culturally and in considering differences within ethnic groups. In the assessment of ethnically diverse individuals, one must operate from a knowledge base that is grounded in reality and addresses itself to the plethora of ideas, values, and lifestyles of their particular group. Accurate assessment of beliefs, virtues, and attitudes in the African American community depends upon a clear understanding of the issues that affect this specific group's members as well as people in our larger society. Afrocentric assessment in out-of-home care, then, basically involves looking at the African American client's world through the eyes of each African American client.One of the ways in which we miss the mark in working with African American families is by oversimplification or by making sweeping generalizations regarding African American families without regard to differences that exist within this group. Within-group diversity has rarely been considered in program development, policy-making, and implementation in the African American community. Therefore, in family foster care (and other practice arenas), assessment and measurement instruments must consider intracultural diversity if they are to be most accurate. Boyd-Franklin [1989: 6] clearly articulates this point:The tendency of policymakers and clinicians alike has been to categorize racial and cultural groups along stereotypical lines, a tendency particularly prevalent about Black families. Given the heterogeneity of cultural variables that are present in Black families and communities, it ought to be patently clear that there is no such entity as the Black family. The great diversity of values, characteristics, and lifestyles that arises from such elements as geographic origin, level of acculturation, socioeconomic status, education, religious background, and age reveals such categorization to be inaccurate and ultimately unproductive as an assessment tool. …