Social Work with African American Males: Health, Mental Health and Social Policy

SOCIAL WORK WITH AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES: HEALTH, MENTAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICY, edited by Waldo E. Johnson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 360 pp. African American males as a demographic group face unparalleled rates of premature mortality, incarceration, homicide, HIV /AIDS and many other illnesses. In addition, this group suffers high rates of unemployment, underemployment, educational failure and many other barriers to economic opportunity. Causes of all of these problems are rooted deeply in the very structure of our society. Given the widespread and serious societal challenges facing this group, it is surprising that in the area of social work African American males have received so little attention up to now. For this reason, Social Work with African American Males: Health, Mental Health and Social Policy represents an especially significant volume, a veritable breakthrough in promoting awareness in the field of social sciences on behalf of this often-neglected group. Overall, the book is a well organized compilation of relevant articles. The topics of focus are well-selected and of compelling importance. Editor Waldo E. Johnson opens with an engaging essay on the social trajectories of African American males through the course of life while outlining the organization of the assemblage of articles to follow. A specific area of emphasis is successful African-American male family participation. Constance Dallas and Karen Kavanaugh explore the unmarried adolescent father's role in pregnancy, and Keven Roy et al. examine the subject of intergenerational support and reciprocity between low income African American fathers and their aging mothers. David J. Pate provides deep insight on the problems faced by African American fathers with welfare reliant children and their frequently adversarial relationship with the child support enforcement system. Joseph Richardson looks at socially supportive African American male role models for at-risk African American youth in single female headed households. Dexter Voisin and Torsten Neilands report the results of a study on adolescent African American male sexual behaviors as impacted by school engagement and peer influence. Another critically important matter facing African American males, that of educational underachievement, is addressed by Reginald Clark et al. in their report on the demonstrable positive effects of after-school programs for African American males on their development and educational progress. Eddie Comeaux speaks to the academic engagement of the black male student athlete. In the often neglected area of African American male mental health, Michael A. …