This handbook provides a global perspective on contemporary demographic theories and studies of marriage and the family. Inside, readers will find a comprehensive analysis that enables demographic comparison between and across international borders. Coverage is centered around four main sections that present a history of marriage and the family, detail relevant data and measurement concerns, examine global marriage practices, analyze interactions of such demographic characteristics as age, sex, and race with marriage and the family, and consider public policy, contemporary trends, and future directions. In addition, the book includes research on current social issues such as alternative family structures, cohabitation, divorce, boomerang children, and adoption. The family is universal but extremely varied in form and function. This handbook provides students, researchers, and policymakers with an all-inclusive, international demographic analysis that fully investigates the diverse nature of the modern family.

This collection highlights and extends contemporary women's and gender studies by presenting theoretical analyses and innovative research conceptualizations, applications and methodologies via a diverse variety of popular-in-the-classroom topics, such as changing masculinities; comedic/dramatic portrayals of ethnicity and discrimination; stigma and differences within mainstream media gender stereotypes; intersections of gendered and sexual identities in social media and fundamental institutions.

These topics emphasize relevant issues and nuances within popular culture, identities and perceptions and social problems and illustrate the breadth of gender studies and its applications, while the diverse methodologies like historical comparisons; ethnographic, demographic and statistical analyses, demonstrate its epistemology.

Each chapter remains solidly founded in gender theory while making significant innovative contributions to the overall field."

This book provides a unique analysis of the intersection between gender, sexuality, race, and social media. While early scholarship identified the internet as being inherently egalitarian, this volume presents the internet as a "real" social place where inequalities matter and manifest in particular ways according to the architectures of particular platforms. This volume utilizes innovative methodologies to analyze how internet users both re-inscribe and resist inequalities of gender, sexuality, and race. It describes how the internet has ameliorated and bridged geographic and numerical limits on community formation, and this volume examines how the functioning of social inequalities differs on- and offline.

This book provides a unique analysis of the intersection between gender, sexuality, race, and social media. While early scholarship identified the internet as being inherently egalitarian, this volume presents the internet as a "real" social place where inequalities matter and manifest in particular ways according to the architectures of particular platforms. This volume utilizes innovative methodologies to analyze how internet users both re-inscribe and resist inequalities of gender, sexuality, and race. It describes how the internet has ameliorated and bridged geographic and numerical limits on community formation, and this volume examines how the functioning of social inequalities differs on- and offline.

This collection highlights and extends contemporary women's and gender studies by presenting theoretical analyses and innovative research conceptualizations, applications and methodologies via a diverse variety of popular-in-the-classroom topics, such as changing masculinities; comedic/dramatic portrayals of ethnicity and discrimination; stigma and differences within mainstream media gender stereotypes; intersections of gendered and sexual identities in social media and fundamental institutions. These topics emphasize relevant issues and nuances within popular culture, identities and perceptions and social problems and illustrate the breadth of gender studies and its applications, while the diverse methodologies like historical comparisons; ethnographic, demographic and statistical analyses, demonstrate its epistemology. Each chapter remains solidly founded in gender theory while making significant innovative contributions to the overall field.

Combining statistical analyses and personal interviews, this book examines the phenomenon of adult children in the United States who have returned to living with their parents in the family home. It uses both data and narrative to fully detail how such co-residency has shaped this ever-increasing demographic group, who are often referred to as "previously launched adults" or " boomerang children." The author first presents quantitative research using data obtained from the National Survey of Families and Households. Readers will discover the various demographic, household, and economic variables that might lead an individual to move back in with his or her family. This statistical analysis is complemented by 50 qualitative interviews that offer a more in-depth look at the trend from the point of view of those who have experienced it. These interviews of both adult children and their parents cover such areas as personal background, the effects of returning to the parental home, and self-esteem issues. In addition, the book offers cross-country comparisons by looking at the prevalence of this phenomenon in China and Greece. It discusses the different cultural contexts in which adult child and parent co-residence is not seen as particularly deviant, as it is in America, as well as identifies some of the demographic and economic factors that would cause those in different countries to continue to live with their parents. This book furthers research into the sociological study of the family. The quantitative analyses describe the large scale trends and their implications, the interviews provide an important personal context, while the cross-country comparisons offer additional perspectives. Overall, readers will gain a complete picture of this unprecedented demographic shift in the United States, including important policy implications and the plight of young adults coming of age in the 21st century.