In an age of migration and mobility many aspects of contemporary family life - from biological reproduction to marriage, from child-rearing to care of the elderly - take place against a backdrop of intensified movement across a range of spatial scales from the global to the local. This insightful book analyzes the opportunities and challenges this poses for families and for academic, empirical and policy understandings of 'the family' on a global level, including case studies from Europe, India, the Philippines, South Korea, the United States and Australia. With chapters on international reproductive tourism, transnational parenting, 'mail-order brides' and 'sunset migration', it examines the implications of migration and mobility for families at different stages of the life course. Moreover, it brings together leading international scholars to connect a fragmented field of research, and in so doing enables an interdisciplinary exchange, generating new insights for theory, policy and empirical analysis.

African American Families: Research, Theory, and Practice illuminates the historical and contemporary experiences of African American families in the United States and demonstrates how they have survived and excelled in a nation not established for them. Section I describes the African American family, including unique features, family structure, diversity, where they live, historical and contemporary influences on their lived experiences, and theoretical and methodological approaches to studying African American families. In Section II, readers learn about processes, adjustments, and well-being within African American families. Coverage includes parents' influences on children's physical, mental, and academic well-being, as well as religion and spirituality. The final section highlights diversity among African American families with chapters on African American fathers, grandparents raising grandchildren, and families with children in the child welfare system. Each chapter features learning objectives, discussion questions, and a section titled "Did You Know?" which draws attention to unique, forgotten, or thought-provoking facts about African American families. African American Families is an ideal textbook for courses in African American studies, cultural and ethnic studies, sociology, psychology, social work, and education, and for practitioners, researchers, and others interested in the African American family.

This book presents a wide variety of insights into the effects of smoking on both smokers and non-smokers. Based on extensive questionnaire surveys from across the USA, this research explores the complex dynamics of intimate relationships and how they are affected by smoking, especially with regard to honest communication. The volume delves into the battles which take place behind closed doors as both smokers and non-smokers invoke personal rights and argue their positions. Finally, the authors explore how health policy and public policy can better serve both smokers and non-smokers, and what the future may hold for the regulation of tobacco use.

Argues that significant barriers to family-making exist for lesbian mothers of color in the United States One might be tempted, in the afterglow of Obergefell v. Hodges, to believe that the battle has been won, that gays and lesbians fought a tough fight and finally achieved equality in the United States through access to legal marriage. But that narrative tells only one version of a very complex story about family and citizenship. Queering Family Trees explores the lived experience of queer mothers in the United States, drawing on over one hundred interviews with African American, Latina, Native American, white, and Asian American lesbian mothers living in a range of socioeconomic circumstances to show how they have navigated family-making. While the legalization of same-sex marriage and adoption in 2015 has provided avenues toward equality for some couples, structural and economic barriers have meant that others-especially queer women of color who often have fewer financial resources-have not been able to access seemingly available "choices" such as second-parent adoptions, powers of attorney, and wills. Sandra Patton-Imani here argues that the virtual exclusion of lesbians of color from public narratives about LGBTQ families is crucial to maintaining the narrative that legal marriage for same-sex couples provides access to full equality as citizens. Through the lens of reproductive justice, Patton-Imani argues that the federal legalization of same-sex marriage reinforces existing structures of inequality grounded in race, gender, sexuality, and class. Queering Family Trees explores the lives of a critically erased segment of the queer population, demonstrating that the seemingly "color blind" solutions offered by marriage equality do not rectify such inequalities.

First-hand accounts of how parents support their transgender children There is a new generation of parents and families who are identifying, supporting, and raising transgender children. In Trans-Affirmative Parenting, Elizabeth Rahilly presents their fascinating stories, interviewing parents of children who identify across the gender spectrum, as well as the doctors, mental health practitioners, educators, and advocates who support their journeys. Rahilly provides a window into parents' experiences, exploring how they come to terms with new ideas about gender, sexuality, identity, and the body, as well as examining their complex deliberations about nonbinary possibilities and medical interventions. Ultimately, Rahilly compassionately shows how parents can best advocate for transgender awareness and move beyond traditional gendered expectations. She also shows that child-centered, child-driven parenting is as central to this new trans-affirmative paradigm as growing LGBTQ awareness. In an era that is increasingly trans-aware, Trans-Affirmative Parenting offers provocative new insights into transgender children and the parents who raise them.

Creative Ageing and the Arts of Care makes a case for cultural participation by older adults to enhance the quality of their lives. Building on concepts of adult human development and empowerment, Elizabeth Brooke reframes 'active ageing' to include forms of creative expression and cultural participation crucial to transforming later stages of the life course. Focusing on the micro-level of the experiences of older adults in visual arts, dance, theatre and music, the book showcases multi-perspective case studies compiled from community-based initiatives and care settings carried out in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia to explain creative ageing in practice. Through the analysis of arts forms embedded in theoretical sociological frameworks and the lens of cultural gerontology, the case studies explore and develop theoretical insights about older adults' experiences of artmaking which also contest ageism. The case studies interrelate meso-level interactional processes entailed in art-making and macro-level structural contexts. Drawing out success factors, the author articulates a transferable policy framework and practical recommendations for a multi-level model of creative ageing. Breaking fresh ground by proposing a new conceptual and practical framework promoting 'creative ageing', Elizabeth Brooke ultimately argues that 'active ageing' must be reframed to include cultural participation as an integral domain at the crux of wellbeing. Ultimately, the book demonstrates how quality of life and quality of care, including self-care, coincide by enabling adults to flourish creatively as they age.

This volume contains an Open Access Chapter Currently, there are more than 36 million transnationally mobile children and youth. Featuring the stories of children and youth from places such as Myanmar, India, Hungary, the USA, and Central America, Children and Youths' Migration in a Global Landscape interrogates how transnational mobility shapes the lives of the relatively young. This edited collection addresses questions that encourage us to consider what it means to be a transnationally mobile child or youth in the 21st century. How does transnational mobility affect youths' understanding of their ethnic identity? What is the link between educational attainment and social mobility? How does social class impact the educational trajectories of return migrant children? What impact does the knowledge economy have on new norms and practices related to human capital accumulation? Illustrating that transnationally mobile children and youths' experiences need social enquiry, this book pushes all of us to question our assumptions, challenge well-established theories, and rethink our understanding of the root causes of social inequality.

This book examines systemic family therapy research, addressing key topics across the interrelated disciplines of psychotherapy, social work, and counseling. Drawing from contributions at the 2017 International Systemic Research Conference in Heidelberg, it includes both quantitative and qualitative research perspectives and outlines a wide array of approaches, using systems theory and constructivist epistemology. In addition, the book focuses on innovative paradigms, research strategies, and methods, seeking to bridge the gap between research and practice in the field of systemic family therapy. Finally, it provides guidance on submitting and maximizing the likelihood of research paper acceptance to leading family therapy journals. Topics featured in this book include: Effectiveness of research-informed systemic therapy. Mindfulness and compassion-based interventions in relational contexts. Use of SCORE (Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation) as an indicator of family functioning in Europe. Systemic approaches for working with couples with high conflict behaviors. Therapeutic-Factor-Oriented skill building in systemic counseling. Importance of client feedback in development of professional knowledge base. Systemic Research in Individual, Couple, and Family Therapy and Counseling is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students in family therapy, clinical psychology, general practice/family medicine, and social work as well as all interrelated psychology and medical disciplines.

Childhood disabilities, particularly cognitive disabilities, are on the rise yet social programs and services to help US families respond to disabilities are not. Many families turn to grandparents for assistance juggling work, family responsibilities, and specialized therapies. This book is based on in-depth interviews with grandparents who are providing at least some care to grandchildren with disabilities. The analyses will help to better understand (1) under what conditions grandparents provide care and support, (2) what types and intensities of care and support grandparents provide, and (3) the impact of that care and support on grandparents' social, emotional, physical, and financial wellbeing. In this fascinating and provocative book, Madonna Harrington Meyer and Ynesse Abdul-Malak take readers on a deep dive into the complex lives of grandparents who care for their disabled grandchildren. In Grandparenting Children with Disabilities, their interviews reveal the joy, meaning, and purpose grandparents find in caregiving, the challenges and frustrations they encounter, and the many ways they compromise their own health and well-being for the sake of their grandchildren. Drawing from theories of cumulative inequality and from their deep knowledge of the US policy context, the authors lay bare the systemic failures that leave families of children with disabilities without adequate support and that place the most vulnerable among them at grave physical, emotional, and financial risk... Jane McLeod, Provost Professor, Indiana University Grandparents in the U.S. already take on far more parenting responsibilities as compared to their peers in other countries. Grandparenting Children with Disabilities demonstrates that the intensity of these responsibilities is compounded for those whose grandchildren have disabilities given limited policy supports and a society still largely unaccommodating to those with disabilities. This book beautifully navigates the tension between the love these grandparents have for their grandchildren and the challenges they face caring for them. Pamela Herd, Professor, Georgetown University Grandparenting Children with Disabilities offers important insights about the lived experience of older adults who care for and care about their grandchildren...The authors skillfully integrate the stories they tell with consideration of macro social structural influences and life course perspectives... I recommend it highly! Eva Kahana, Distinguished University Professor, Case Western Reserve

This book presents a comprehensive overview of Asian families residing in Canada and the United States by portraying and analyzing Asian Canadian and Asian American immigrant families in an integrated yet nuanced way. Chapters use an interdisciplinary approach to provide more comprehensive coverage of the vast diversity as well as common trends and shared characteristics of Asian families. Specifically, the volume examines the experiences of families whose ancestry can be traced to East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. Key areas of coverage include: Integrated overview of Asian American and Asian Canadian families, including an exploration of the historical and current immigration policies. Experiences of families of East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, and West Asian ancestry across Canada and the United States. Asian religious traditions and worldviews, traditional practices, and religio-cultural views on gender, sexuality, and family. Specific Asian immigrant groups on immigration demographics, family dynamics and relationships, gendered roles, parenting practices and beliefs, and implications for mental health. Challenges and issues that families face as Asians and immigrants, the strength and resilience of families, with extensive reviews on various intervention and prevention programs. Methodological strategies in investigating Asian families and their impact on the field. Asian Families in Canada and the United States is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, graduate students as well as clinicians, professionals, and policymakers in the fields of developmental, social, and cross-cultural psychology, parenting and family studies, social work, and all interrelated disciplines.

This book maps father failure and redemption through three decades of Hollywood family films, revealing how libertarian notions that align agency with autonomy lead to new conflicts for the contemporary father. The films find resolution to these conflicts through a re-gendering of parenting as relationship. In their creation of a 'pure' fatherhood that is valorised as authentic for its lack of parental responsibilities, the films serve to challenge the perception that fathering enacted outside the nuclear family structure is fragile. McNulty Norton finds in the films a new essentialism that secures the pure relationship to the biological father, reinforcing his position in the face of changing family forms.

This book considers the changing nature of intimacy in contemporary China, providing a unique case study of romantic subjectivities in young people in the world's fastest growing economy. Since the implementation of reform in 1978, the economic and socio-cultural environment of modern China has experienced a dramatic transformation under the influence of urbanization and globalization, facilitating more individualized identity among Chinese youth. This book bridges the gap between an emergent emphasis on individualisation and the country's traditional norms and values. It focuses on young people's understandings of various forms of relationships such as cohabitation, extramarital relationships and multiple relationships, suggesting a challenge to traditional familial values and an increasingly diversified understanding of the concepts of love and romance. By examining the formation of relationships among 21st century Chinese youth, notably through the lens of popular Chinese TV dating programs, this book considers how dating and relationships mirror China's changing societal structure and examines social and cultural transformations in Chinese society.

This book examines community group settings for young men who are fathers, with particular emphasis on the role of gender within the groups and the possibilities of such groups for the 'un-doing' of gender. Young men who are fathers are often marginalized and negatively portrayed within society. Groups allow them space and opportunity for peer support with other young men, to gain confidence and skills, and to positively develop their fatherhood identities. They offer young fathers opportunities to encounter new role models and can therefore help to reimagine young men who are fathers, challenging stereotypes and offering support for young men and their families. Supporting Young Men as Fathers will be of interest to students and scholars in the areas of sociology, social work, health promotion and youth work as well as practitioners working within family settings or who may encounter young men who are parents within their professional roles.

This book depicts the cultural imagination of the Italian-Jewish minority from the unification of the country to the end of the First World War. The creation of an Italian nation-state introduced new problems and new opportunities for its citizens. What did it mean for the Jewish minority? How could members of the minority combine and redefine Jewishness and Italianness in a radically new political and legal framework? Key concepts such as family, religion, nation, assimilation and - later - Zionism are observed as they shift and change over time. The interaction between the public and private spheres plays a pivotal role in the analysis, and the self-fashioning of Italian Jewish elites is read alongside the evolution of the cultural stereotypes typical of the time. Reinterpreting the Italian national patriotic narrative through the eyes of the Jews, Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti is able to unveil its less known layers and articulations, while at the same time offering a new perspective from which to read the modern Jewish experience in the Western World.

Inside Out and Outside In has established itself as a foundational book for mental health practitioners in a variety of disciplines who work with clients in complex social environments. It is unique in its focus on the forces that shape people from within and also from their social worlds, with sensitivity to race, gender, sexuality, and class. The fifth edition features new material and revisions throughout while maintaining the respectful and accessible style for which the book is known. It has been fully updated to reflect the changing political and social landscape, regarding women's issues, immigration issues, and racism, to name just a few. Two new chapters have been added on Biopsychosocial Assessment and Neurobiology. In addition, the authors reinforce intersectionality and diversity through case studies in every chapter. The fifth edition of Inside Out and Outside In is an up-to-date and essential resource for mental health professionals and students practicing in today's increasingly complex environment.

Originally published in 1987, this book presented for the first time a unified treatment of English kinship of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This system, far from being a patchwork of historical accidents, has a remarkably logical overall structure, permeating both law and custom. To understand it one must study a wide variety of sources ranging from Parliamentary debates through accounts of contemporary events, cases and incidents to fiction of the day. The work is pertinent to current studies in a number of fields: in history it represents a systematic overview, highlighting new sources of material, while for lawyers it gives a historical context and explanation of 'family law', particularly topical for impending English legislation in this area at the time. It collects two centuries of sociological data, and presents social anthropologists with the English system for comparison with systems conventionally studied in the field and with kinship theory. Finally, it provides philosophers with a new arena in which to discuss the nature of explanations of human activities, besides raising fresh questions.

In the 1960s divorce was increasing around the world and marriage conciliation services were a necessary development to deal with those who wanted to seek help for their problems. Originally published in 1968, the purpose of this title was to give some account of the widely differing types of marital conciliation services operating in Britain and also some other parts of the world at the time. The author, who was based at the National Marriage Guidance Council of Great Britain, first outlines the British services, then presents comparative studies of the services overseas in Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia and Finland and the United States and Canada. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

In the 1970s among peoples of the third world migration, paid employment, and urban living had caused changes in domestic economies, in decision making in households, and in the sexual division of labour and power. This was particularly so in areas formerly subjected to colonial domination and therefore the influence of European mores and institutions. This book, previously published in 1974 as Marriage Among a Matrilineal Elite, this edition in 1981, provides one of the few detailed accounts of such changes, by a writer who has lived the kind of life she describes, that of the urban educated Akan of Southern Ghana - people who have migrated from farming and fishing villages to Accra the capital to find employment in government institutions after protracted higher education, often overseas. The study is particularly interesting because it focuses upon people from an ethnic area practicing matrilineal descent and inheritance, in which women and men have traditionally both worked in agriculture: in which husbands and wives have customarily resided in separate houses, affording both sexes considerable autonomy as spouses and in which women have held important political offices, as well as sharing responsibilities for maintenance of dependent children. Akan women provide an important model of responsible energetic females, who have in the past and to some extent in the present, avoided the domestic trap of wifely dependence. But, as we read, the trap is open to those who forsake traditional patterns of economic endeavour or whose resources vis a vis their men folk are reduced. The book was also a significant contribution to the comparative sociology of the family at the time, providing an exercise in methodology in which the aim has been to evolve ways of documenting and comparing two major aspects of change in conjugal family relationships. On one hand, the division of labour, resources and power between spouses - the 'jointness or segregation' of the conjugal role relationship - and on the other, the extent to which the conjugal family is a functionally discrete unit in a number of domestic activity areas: in popular and ambiguous terms whether the family is 'extended' or 'nuclear'. The use of sociological concepts developed in other areas of the world gives this book a significant position in the development of a cross culturally valid sociology of the family. The subject matter and conceptual frameworks used here will thus be of interest to sociologists, economists and anthropologists in general and to specialists in African and Black studies, Women's Studies and Sex Roles in particular, as well as to the male and female feminists around the world.

The great issues and conflicts of the early seventeenth century were played out not only on the stages of the Court and Parliament, and, latterly, on the battlefield, but within the confines of the family. Originally published in 1984, in this pioneering study of the Verney family, based on more than 10,000 family letters and papers, Professor Miriam Slater shows how a family of country gentry lived and behaved in a time of political and social crisis. Most of their energies were directed within the family, their concerns with marriage and children, with relationships between members of the Verney clan, with managing their estates and property. They emerge as real people with passions and hatreds, made to live their lives by correspondence when the head of the family was forced to live abroad as an exile and casualty of the political tumults. But their misfortunes have created a unique archive which allows the author to delve deep into the very heart of their personal lives, and to create an extraordinary collective portrait of a family in times of troubles. Professor Slater describes and analyses the way in which Verney family members actually treated each other, and gives an account of their ideas - on marriage, from both the male and female points of view; on the roles of children and parents; on the relationships among adult siblings; on the place of servants within the family. She offers a detailed and systematic examination of family psychological dynamics, and the values, attitudes and goals which affected individual behaviour. She also moves beyond individual idiosyncrasies by linking the nature of personal interaction within the family to the wider social structures of the society, including laws of inheritance, patriarchal control, the different treatment of men and women, and financial arrangements and family strategies.

Originally published in 1986, reissued here with a new preface, this study of the origins and early development of family conciliation services in Britain outlines their philosophy, methods of work and reported results, illustrated with case examples. The examples demonstrate that disputes between separating and divorcing couples involve complex personal and family problems as well as legal ones, and that the practice of conciliation needed to be set in the context of current changes in family law and court procedures. At the time many solicitors and courts were adopting a settlement-seeking approach in matrimonial cases rather than a sharply adversarial one, and the complementary roles of solicitors and conciliators gave rise to dilemmas in practice, as well as offering potential advantages. This book draws a parallel between the work of ACAS in industrial disputes and the similar approach of family conciliation services, but points out that there are also major differences. It also shows how the experience of conciliation practice gained in other countries throws some useful light on the questions being raised in Britain. Research findings from Australia, Canada and the United States are used in discussing the future of conciliation in the short and longer term, and in looking at the possible development of alternative methods of resolving disputes.

Few Americans escape the experience of divorce, either first-hand or through the dissolutions of marriages of friends or relatives. According to the author, mediation offers a good alternative to the strictly adversarial divorce process that was so prevalent before such programs began to emerge. Originally published in 1991, this book was unique at the time in that it not only explores the role of communication in divorce mediation, but it also presents original research to support its claims. A series of empirical studies, it points readers to a more focused set of recommendations about communication than the typical practitioner's "How-to" books. A simulation exercise is also included, so that readers can apply the concepts described and see the results. The main goal of this text is to provide mediators with a language for understanding their own and their disputants' communication patterns, strategies, and tactics - a shortcoming of most other books on this topic when first published.

In the early 1980s the subject of violence in marriage was in danger of being overlooked once again, as new social problems dominated the political scene, and the Government pursued policies of retrenchment that were likely to deprive refuges of the necessary central government support. Yet improvements in the services for victims of marital violence were still urgently needed, as this study shows. Originally published in 1983, this book is based on research into the way practitioners in the medical, legal, and social services viewed marriage and violence at the time. It examines marital violence from a number of perspectives. Taking samples from groups of doctors, solicitors, social workers, health visitors, and women's aid refuges, the authors have investigated the ways in which different agencies and practitioners respond to the problem of marital violence. They use a combination of statistical evidence and interviews with practitioners and the victims themselves to build up a picture of the extent of the problem - how it is defined, how much comes to the attention of the public services - and of the ways in which the attitudes and professional status of the practitioners form a response that is in varying degrees adequate or otherwise to deal with the problems that exist. The authors produce evidence to show that marital violence is still widespread, though largely hidden because of the way privacy determines family relationships. They show how present provisions are inadequate to deal with the problem, and make recommendations about ways of improving the services available to help battered women.

The divorce rate in England and Wales increased nearly four-fold between 1950 and 1976; in the five years following the implementation of the 1969 Divorce Reform Act in January 1971, it more than doubled. Despite the plethora of public comment about the rising divorce rates, there was at the time very little objective data in our society about either those who chose to resolve their marital unhappiness by divorce, or the possible causes and consequences of such divorce. Originally published in 1979, this book, the first published study from the Marriage Research Centre, represented an important landmark in a relatively unexplored field. Who Divorces? Presents the findings of a large-scale study into the characteristics of those who divorce. Certain childhood, adolescent, pre-marital and marital characteristics and experiences of a random sample of men and women who divorced are considered and compared with the characteristics and experiences of a random sample of men and women whose marriages were still intact. Additionally, research findings relating to the causes and consequences of divorce, both for the individual and for society, are discussed with particular reference to the wide range of prevailing opinion on these matters.

Originally published in 1988, the author of the classic Family and Marriage in Britain (1962), Professor Ronald Fletcher here makes a new appraisal of the family in society today. Comprehensive in its range of material and straightforward in style, the book represents his thoughts on the family and marriage in Britain in the 1980s. Since the 1969 Divorce Reform Act, many anxieties had been felt and voiced about the trends of divorce, marital breakdown, the growing instability of the family and so on. The changes, however, were hard to discern and assess, statistical records difficult to interpret reliably. Ronald Fletcher discusses these continuing anxieties and presents a thorough-going critical review of these changes and statistics. In his conclusions he emphasises the continuing importance in modern society of the family and marriage. Professor Fletcher examines the family as both an agent and symptom of change. He explores in detail the relation between family life and the deeper long-term changes which had been at work throughout the twentieth century - the disrupting experience of world wars; the rapidity of technological and social change; the many-sided changes in communications; the spread of secularisation; and changes in education - seeking a profound and satisfactory causal explanation. He ends with a consideration of the future of the family and society alike, and what our social and educational policies ought to be if certain values and qualities of life are to be sustained. The Shaking of the Foundations is the companion volume to The Abolitionists (1989), in which Ronald Fletcher critically examines the anti-family arguments of the previous thirty years.

Originally published in 1984, Making a Go of It presents findings from a study of remarried couples in Sheffield between 1976 and 1979. Including case studies from the families involved, it also discusses marriage as a social institution and some of the main theoretical and methodological issues which bear upon the study of family and domestic life. It was hoped that the book would be interesting and accessible to remarried couples themselves as well as to members of those occupations who have a 'professional' interest in families of all kinds. Still a useful resource, today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.