Family Relations : Challenges for the Future

Families today are changing in response to shifts in the broader environment: dual-career couples, single-parent families, racially mixed families, now represent the norm rather than the exception. A group of leading family researchers examine current social changes and their impact on family relationsips and family functioning. As an overview of the present state of and future directions for families, this book should be required reading for family researchers, practitioners and students.

As the social world of American families feverishly changes, single-parent families, dual-career couples, and blended families have quickly become the norm rather than the exception. In Family Relations, a distinguished group of leading family researchers including Joan Huber, David Olson, Hamilton McCubbin, and Marilyn Coleman examines the social changes that have gripped society and explains their impact on family relationships and functioning. Initial chapters address principal theories of change; the remainder of the volume addresses the predominant challenges facing contemporary families such as work/family interface, violence, family dysfunction, family crisis, divorce, and the transition to marriage and parenthood. The contributors make suggestions for change in family policy, family therapy, and family life education, and conclude with an overview of the current state of families and future directions. This comprehensive and interesting volume is for students, family researchers, sociologists, psychologists, counselors, family life educators, and policy analysts. "True to its aim it informs about the latest understandings and tools of intervention to help overcome the formidable challenges to the family....there is some worthy scholarship to be found in this volume....chapter 3 on gender and role change is a lively and readable summary." --British Journal of Social Work "[This volume] has much to offer. For example, the volume contains demographic information often needed by practitioners and policymakers at a moment′s notice. Literature reviews not only summarize research on a particular topic but also are organized around a theoretical framework. Well-known authors have contributed scholarly, insightful commentaries on current family issues and challenges for the future. In short, this book provides information that practitioners and policymakers could use to do the following: establish the need and rationale for programming and applied research, justify the expenditure of funds for children and families, ground their work in theory and research, conduct in-service education, and consider program evaluation strategies. . . . This book is well-written and provides a valuable resource for the intended readership. I look forward to the second volume." --Journal of Marriage and the Family