Paternal involvement in fragile, African American families: Implications for clinical social work practice

Changes in family formation and structure mandate reassessment and realignment of traditional parenting roles and arrangements. Adaptation to these changes has been truncated along racial and socioeconomic status lines. Poor African American families and especially fathers in fragile families are most vulnerable and are in need of individual and structural assistance to achieve expected personal and societal role development. The “person‐in‐environment” perspective of clinical social work offers an organizing framework for interventions designed to improve paternal role and family functioning.