Color Him Father: Generative Parenting Among Low-Income, Urban-Residing, Coresidential Black Fathers

In social science and popular parlance, Black low-income fathers continue to be represented as largely absent, disengaged, and negligent. These negative representations belie emerging qualitative and quantitative empirical data that demonstrate Black fathers, across lines of class, are constructively and responsibly involved in the lives of their children. The present study used qualitative data from 2 focus groups (n = 6 and n = 5) and 9 individual interviews with low-income, urban-residing Black men who are coresiding caregivers to young children (Mchild age = 47.9 months, SD = 11.4) to clarify how these men conceive of and pursue positive parenting. Caregivers were recruited from 11 Head Start programs in New York City. Interviews lasted 90-120 min and were transcribed verbatim. Content and thematic analysis of verbatim transcripts yielded 23 thematic codes related to men's views of positive parenting. Themes revealed that fathers constructed positive parenting as a "generative" enterprise. However, generativity for these fathers reflected different concerns from generative parenting as conceived in extant literatures. In particular, our findings suggest the need to expand existing understandings of generative parenting by attending to challenges of emotional honesty, authenticity, dignity, and community. Public Significance Statement Over the past decade, more than $100 million in federal funding has been targeted to promoting positive fathering, particularly among low-income Black fathers. However, the success of such initiatives depends on leveraging how low-income Black men conceive of and enact positive parenting. This study contributes to the public good by offering evidence of men's conceptualizations and enactments of what it means to parent well.