The Social World of Female-Headed Black Families: A Study of Quality of Life in a Marginalized Neighborhood
Author(s)
Harris, Hugh; Nandi, Prohanta K.
Abstract
One of the distinct characteristics of the demographic landscape in America in recent decades has been the growing phenomenon of female-headed, single-parent, black family households. The imagery of the social world these women live in is bleak. In general, it is perceived as consisting of life in drug-infested housing projects in the midst of poverty, violence and deprivation that adversely affect the quality of their lives. This perception, however, has little resemblance to the perception the residents have of themselves vis-à-vis the structural and emotional circumstances of their living, and has even less congruity to the residents’ attitudes, values, hopes, fears and concerns. Adding on to the perspective of “quality of life” studies, the “social world” of a person or group in this research is conceptualized to consist of the individual’s or group’s perception of both subjective and inter-subjective dimensions of living – structural as well as the emotional – including what the person or the group believes to be his/her/its constraints, fears, concerns, hopes and aspirations.
