美國黑人青少年非婚單親母親家庭之原因研究

Study on the Causes of the Black Unmarried Teenage Female-Headed Parenthood in America

黃欣裴(Shin-Pei Huang)

指導教授 ： 李本京

淡江大學/國際研究學院/美國研究所碩士班/碩士(2008年)

https://doi.org/10.6846/TKU.2008.00944

摘要

低收入黑人居住區（Ghetto）有著最惡劣的居住環境，髒亂、擁擠、塗鴉以及廢棄的大樓和汽車。低收入黑人居住區的孩子，生活在擁擠的住宅區內，缺乏娛樂設施，遊戲場地少之又少，他們只能在巷弄之間嬉戲。在此情況下，青少年結黨營社，成立幫派，血氣方剛逞英雄，順其自然地幹起扒竊、偷盜甚至更嚴重的犯罪行為，然而在貧民窟，青少年很早就開始接觸人性醜惡的一面，導致低收入黑人居住區裡的青少年偏差行為特別多。黑人非婚生育的青少年大多發生在都市的內城（inner city）裡，在這裡經過的社會經濟的結構變遷下變成極度貧窮的社區。工作機會和住宅的郊區化讓低工作技能的黑人留在內城，而這些人的生產力卻也沒辦法維持一個社區所需要的資源，他們多數人都是處於失業的狀態。破舊廢棄的房舍、髒亂、擁擠、犯罪等是黑人居住環境的形容詞，黑人青少年生長在這種環境之下不管是經濟還是精神上都呈現負面的影響，而學校教育也因為社會資源的匱乏無法發揮正常的功能，同儕也就變成這個時期行為模式的認同對象。
而家庭教育的角色卻是扭轉黑人青少年非婚生育的關鍵。有別於一般傳統的家庭組成，黑人母系家庭結構有著奴隸歷史上的淵源。然而這種家庭的組成方式對下一代的教育有著本質上的限制，進而造就青少年的非婚生育。在這種家庭結構底下，黑人女性的角色無形中被強化，取代傳統男性在家庭的功成能；黑人男性對於家庭中的責任意識淡薄，面對社區的貧窮、失業等問題，也讓他們不受婚姻市場的親睞，導致更多的非婚生育情形。社會福利在這時就唯
ㄧ個重要的經濟來源。依賴兒童家庭補助（Aid to The Family with Dependent Children, AFDC）社會福利的目的原來是為了資助單親且家中育有兒女的貧窮家庭，但日趨慷慨的
補助不僅造成了福利依賴，也間接的刺激非婚生育率的上升，造成接受社會救助的對象多是從未結婚的單親媽媽。社會福利支出的負擔最後也走向改革之路，期待以工作福利讓未婚單親媽媽承擔更多的經濟上的責任。雖然學術界比較各州福利狀況對於社會福利的非婚生育刺激效應研究仍然無法有一個統一的解釋，其中當然有其研究方法上的缺陷和限制，但是從社會福利的磁吸效應可以看的出經濟上的考量確實是青少年非婚生子的一個考慮面向。

關鍵字

青少年生育 ； 非婚生育 ； 女性領導家庭 ； 黑人青少年

並列摘要

Ghetto where the Black lives has the worst living environment, rotten、crowded、scrabble and full of abandon buildings and cars. Children growing up in the communities where are devoid of entertainment accommodations and playgrounds can only play around narrow alleys. In this condition, black teenagers organize gangs to steal、rob or engage even more severe crimes. Black teenagers are exposed to many dark sides of humanity in very young age so they have high inclination to show delinquent behaviors. Births outside marriage among black teenagers mostly happen in the inner cities where experience dramatic change of socio-economic structure and then turn into the most impoverished areas. Suburbanization of employment and living residence force the low-skill black workers to stay in the inner city and remain unemployment that eventually lead to the poverty of communities. Rearing in this kind of places would cause black teenagers to have negative economic and psychological outcomes. School system can’t develop effective functions because of community poverty, and peer groups become role models of behaviors.
However family education is the key of reducing births outside marriage among black teenagers. Unlike traditional family formation, black matriarchal family can be traced back to the slavery history. These kinds of family formations confine themselves on educating the next generation, and contribute to teenage childbearing. Black matriarchal family reinforces the role of black female to replace traditional male functions in the family. Black male has weak responsibilities toward a family as well as was rejected from marriage market because of poverty and unemployment; therefore create more birth outside marriage. In this time social welfare becomes an important financial resource to support the family. “Aid to The Family with Dependent Children” was to help single and poor families which have dependent children. But the generosity of welfare benefits results in welfare dependency and the rise of birth rate outside marriage. Most of the welfare applicants eventually are single mothers who are never married. The heavy burden of welfare expenditure promoted welfare reform which add concept of “workfare” to put more responsibilities on single unmarried mothers. Although there is not a uniform conclusion toward if welfare benefits create more birth rate outside marriage, but we can see that welfare benefit is an influential consideration dimension from “welfare magnet effects”

並列關鍵字

teenage childbearing ； birth out-of wedlock ； female-headed Parenthood ； black teenage

參考文獻

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