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Using data from an ongoing study of single black mothers, we investigated the relationship of mothers' symptoms of depression and aspects of social support to parenting stress and children's behavior problems. Greater availability of instrumental social support exacerbated the effects of depression on parent stress, which, in turn, led to more child behavior problems. Also affecting child behavior were the presence of a grandmother in the household and less frequent contact between the nonresident father and child. Employed mothers were more likely to share a residence with the child's grandmother. Employment, in turn, was associated with higher income, but no less financial strain. However, a marginally significant, and negative, correlation between financial strain and mother-grandmother cohabitation was evident.

An out-of-home care system that is itself in crisis lacks adequate resources to provide the services needed by families and children in distress. Increasingly, these families are composed of people of color, particularly African Americans. Using current child welfare statistics and a review of the literature, this article examines the nature of the crisis in child welfare, and how poverty and an array of social problems, as well as problems specific to the child welfare system, increase the overrepresentation of African American children and families in the out-of-home care system. Implications for child welfare practice and advocacy are also discussed.

A study of inner-city African American youth has shown that social skills training geared to conflict resolution and problem solving can give good results. This applies both when an Afrocentric value system is emphasized and when the program is culturally relevant but not particulatly Afrocentric. The study relies on self-report measures. The results show that Afrocentric training can be of value as preventative therapy. There is a need for further research in this area.

Elderly black farm women are a neglected segment of the elderly population. Their self-reliance, mutual support, and rurality have helped keep them isolated and underserved. This article describes the productive lifestyles that 10 such women in southeastern North Carolina recalled in oral-history interviews and the problems these women face because of their advancing age, poor health, caregiving responsibilities, and isolation and the deterioration of traditional resources.

Lester Blackwell Granger, a professional social worker and leader of the National Urban League for 20 years, is rarely mentioned today in either social work or black history literature. Using primary source material from the National Urban League collection in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, I explore how his adherence to the principles of 'scientific social work' and rational planning for social change left him out of step with the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s. I take a revisionist approach to examine the two most criticized aspects of Granger's career: his response to the civil rights movement as a professional social worker and his Republican party membership.

One prominent finding of the urban services literature is that politics matters very little. Urban services are distributed according to bureaucratic decision rules that result in 'unpatterned inequalities.' This research challenges previous studies arguing that their findings are the function of narrow definitions, a neglect of the political process, unrealistic assumptions about citizen preferences, and failure to consider the nature of bureaucratic discretion. Using empirical evidence from 140 large urban school districts, this study finds that politics is the major means available to minorities to influence policy implementation. Political action can counter the perceived social-class biases of urban bureaucracies.

Therapists should try to learn more about the personal culture of their subjects before beginning their treatment. A therapist shares her experience with a 17-year-old African American girl whose mother died from AIDS. Her work with the teener revealed many aspects of adolescent psychology that need attention and focus by social work professionals. The teener was described as rebellious due to her personal problems that started when her mother died. At that time, she was experiencing a general feeling of being unwanted and unloved.

The African-centred worldview calls on social work to widen its philosophical and intellectual foundations to embrace humanity and to ensure that the Eurocentric worldview no longer dominates over the mindset of African peoples. African-centred perspectives make it possible to change and move beyond the restrictions of oppression to establish holistic social work models that both nurture and develop Black families and their children and promote the interests of African people globally.

John E. Jacob, the retired president of the National Urban League, won the 1994 Crisis President's Torch of Courage Award for his attempts to provide equal opportunities to African Americans. Jacob considers economic inequality as the factor hindering African American progress and emphasizes non-violent means to achieve goals. Jacob also stresses the need for new leadership for an organization's improvement.