Effects of Family Structure, Family Process, and Father Involvement on Psychosocial Outcomes among African American Adolescents

Psychosocial outcomes and family processes were compared across five family constellations among 634 African American adolescents. The only significant family structure effect-higher marijuana use among youths living with their mothers and extended family-disappeared when age was entered as a covariate. Family process and youths' relationships with their fathers were correlated with psychosocial outcomes. The effects of father involvement on psychosocial outcomes were mediated by family process. Finally many fathers who did not live with their children were found to be present in their lives. These results challenge the assumptions that nonresident fathers are absent from their children's lives, and that living with single mothers adversely affects psychosocial development of African American youths.