Part I: Emergent issues, themes, and conceptualizations -- Introduction: Context, adaptation, and policy / Vonnie C. McLoyd, Kenneth A. Dodge, and Nancy E. Hill -- Sociocultural contexts of African American families / Nancy E. Hill, Velma McBride Murry, and Valerie D. Anderson -- Trends in African-American child well-being, 1985-2001 / Vicki L. Lamb, Kenneth C. Land, Sarah 0. Meadows, and Fasaha Traylor -- Racial wealth inequality and the Black family / William A. Darity, Jr. and Melba J. Nicholson -- New families, new functions : postmodern African American families in context / Belinda Tucker and Angela D. James -- Part II: African-American families in community contexts -- Marital relationships of African Americans : a contextual approach / Chalandra Bryant and K. A. S. Wickrama -- Work and African American family life / Vonnie C. McLoyd and Noemi Enchautegui-de-Jesus -- Homeplace and housing in the lives of low-income urban African-American families / Linda M. Burton and Sherri Lawson Clark -- Religion in African American family life / Jacqueline S. Mattis -- A model of extended family support : care of the elderly in African American families / Peggye Dilworth-Anderson and Paula Y. Goodwin -- Part II: Socialization processes in African American families -- Family practices and school performance of African American children / Oscar Barbarin, Terry McCandies, Cheri Coleman, and Nancy Hill -- The cultural context of physically disciplining children / Kenneth A. Dodge, Vonnie C. McLoyd, and Jennifer E. Lansford -- African American families as a context for racial socialization / Stephanie M. Coard and Robert M. Sellers -- Beyond the birth family : African American children reared by alternative caregivers / Ellen E. Pinderhughes and Brenda Jones Harden -- Style matters : towards a culturally relevant framework for interventions with African American families / Howard Stevenson, Donna-Marie Winn, Chanequa Walker-Bames, and Stephanie M. Coard.