Marriage and Families: Diversity and Change (Eighth Edition)

Synopsis

Today, many marriages and families are buffeted by numerous global economic and political forces. Many families are experiencing unemployment, home foreclosures, and personal bankruptcies as well as ongoing violence at home and abroad. These experiences are taking a toll on the health and stability of family life. In this context, a sociological approach to studying marriages and families is especially helpful. Such an approach enables us to under-stand the constraints and opportunities that affect our lives and those of other people, thereby positioning us to make more discriminating and successful decisions and to exercise greater control over our lives.

In this eighth edition of Marriages and Families: Diversity and Change, there is a conscious effort to present a continuity of major issues, concerns, and themes on contemporary marriages, families, and intimate relationships. Our initial resolve when writing the first edition of this textbook has not changed, and it informs this eighth edition as well. The subtitle of this book, Diversity and Change, continues to be the major thematic framework that runs through all 15 chapters and is informed by the scholarship of a wide variety of scholars, most notably scholars of color and feminist scholars in sociology and from across a number of other academic disciplines. The emphasis on diversity helps students to understand that many different forms of intimate relationships exist beyond the traditional heterosexual, two-parent, married, White, middle-class family.

As we show throughout this textbook, marriages and families more generally include single-parent families, headed by women or men; lesbian or gay families with or without children and with or without a live-in partner; adoptive and foster families; biracial and multiracial families; cohabiting couples involving heterosexual or same-sex partners; and blended families that emerge following divorce, remarriage, or simply when people bring to a new relationship children from a previous intimate relationship. In this context, we treat marriages and families as social constructs whose meanings have changed over time and from place to place.

Copyright:

2018

Book Details

Book Quality:

Excellent

Book Size:

640 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780137536405

Publisher:

Pearson

Date of Addition:

12/15/23

Copyrighted By:

Pearson Education, Inc.

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Parenting and Family

Submitted By:

Daproim Africa

Proofread By:

Daproim Africa

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.