A Diversity of Family Contexts The Daughters’ Voices

In this first of three chapters focused on the daughters, we examine the challenges they faced and why they think they succeeded where so many other young African American women have struggled. Their messages, while similar in many ways to those we heard from the parents, have a different resonance and emphasis. The daughters provide new perspectives about the challenges they faced and the factors that have led to their success—factors that the parents either were not aware of or did not think were particularly important. This chapter highlights the varied nature of the family, the challenges facing each daughter in school and the neighborhood, and the factors that helped the daughters succeed. In the two preceding chapters, commonalities across the families were often emphasized. We are now ready to explore in more detail some of the differences across families. Previous research on adolescent female African Americans has tended to focus on their deficits, including their social, academic, and behavioral problems. A recent body of research, however, focuses on the strengths, resilience, and empowerment of Black youth. The literature regarding strengths emphasizes the positive resources young people bring to bear in coping with difficult fives and hazardous environments. For instance, involvement in activity that draws upon latent skills and talents (e.g., leadership skills or artistic talent) has been found to be related to positive development among urban youth. The literature on resilience focuses on high-risk youth who succeed in life despite unfavorable odds. One key factor that leads to their success is the support they receive from at least one primary adult— whether inside the family or in the larger community. Finally, empowerment-related research examines ways in which youth can develop an inner sense of competence and an enhanced sense of power in order to achieve significant personal goals in the face of environmental obstacles. One model suggests that it is especially important to provide young people with a positive, inspiring belief system that focuses beyond the self and emphasizes developing capabilities, contributing to others, and a strong support system.