Nicholas Wolfinger – författare

In 1994, David Hernandez, a small-time drug-dealer in Spanish Harlem, got out of the drug business and turned his life over to God. After he joined Victory Chapel - a vibrant Bronx-based Pentecostal church - he saw his life change in many ways: today he is a member of the NYPD, married, the father of three, and still an active member of his church. David Hernandez is just one of the many individuals whose stories inform Soul Mates, which draws on both broad national surveys and in-depth interviews to paint a detailed portrait of the largely positive influence exercised by churches on relationships and marriage among African Americans and Latinos.Soul Mates shines a much-needed spotlight on the lives of strong and happy minority couples. They find that both married and unmarried minority couples who attend church together are significantly more likely to enjoy happy relationships than black and Latino couples who do not regularly attend. Churches serving these communities, the authors argue, promote a code of decency, encompassing hard work, temperance, and personal responsibility, that benefits black and Latino families. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Wilcox and Wolfinger provide a compelling look at faith and family life among blacks and Latinos. The book offers a wealth of critical insight into the effect of religion on minority relationships, as well as the unique economic and cultural challenges facing African American and Latino families in twenty-first-century America.

Many people see government involvement in family policy as a response to popular concerns that the American family is in a state of crisis. One of the primary concerns with “fragile” families (one parent – usually mother) is economic: Poverty rates for single mothers are several times that of two-parent families. Economic deprivation while growing up has been linked to poor physical health, reduced intellectual ability and academic achievement.Some social sciences contend that marriage is the solution to many of the problems associated with single-parent families. Other experts believe that government programs designed to raise marriage rates may cause more problems than they solve (i.e. domestic violence, divorce, etc.).The proposed volume will explore issues related to fragile families from many different perspectives on the causes and consequences of this issue. This book is divided up into sections covering legal and theoretical perspectives, causes and consequences of offspring wellbeing, and the aspect of father’s importance to the “fragile families”.