Final answer:
Research should expand to include the roles of kin extending beyond traditional nuclear family models in African-American family structures, recognizing the presence and contribution of extended and fictive kin to family stability, both historically and currently.
Step-by-step explanation:
Research on African-American families should indeed recognize the expansive role that uncles, aunts, siblings, and other kin play in family stability. Historical texts indicate that during the antebellum period in the American South, enslaved African American families exhibited a high degree of resilience and resourcefulness in maintaining family structures. Despite the hardships of slavery, families strived to establish enduring bonds of kinship and community, often extending beyond the traditional nuclear family model to include extended kin, fictive kin, and broader community networks.
Brenda Stevenson's work emphasizes that many African American families in the Upper South were characterized not by nuclear structures but by extended and matrifocal networks. Herbert Gutman also argues that enslaved individuals strived to replicate nuclear family structures whenever possible, acknowledging the diversity of Black family dynamics. By understanding the varying forms of family and kinship in African American history, including the roles played by family members not related by blood or marriage, we gain richer insights into the foundations of family stability and the complexities of Black family life in the past and present.