The participants in the study also provided a number of suggestions that might be implemented to help increase the number of committed African American fathers in future generations.

The results of the research indicated that successful African American fathers are motivated by myriad factors that positively influence their commitment to their children. There does not seem to be a genetic predisposition in African Americans that makes them unfit or fit fathers. Rather, family-of-origin, socialization, economics, religion/spirituality, personal philosophy and other factors coalesced to produce these successful African American fathers.

Concomitantly there are values in the American psyche that encourage all fathers to be involved in raising and nurturing their children. The inference that African American fathers are less committed to their children than are fathers of other racial groups carries with it negative connotations that affront the sensibilities of most African Americans.

This dissertation used qualitative methods to study eight "successful" black fathers who belie the stereotype. The goal was to examine the motivation of these committed fathers.

This stereotype has sociological, political and economic implications, since statutes have been imposed to insure that biological fathers provide financial support to their children and in some cases to the children's mother.

African American fathers have traditionally been portrayed negatively in the media as "deadbeat, uninvolved and/or absentee". This portrayal can be supported by some national statistics that detail the fact that over sixty per cent of African American children are born into or later become a part of a female headed, single parent family.