Making Healthy Families explains the elements required to make and sustain healthy, functional families. This timely book describes the family life stages, from "Becoming a Couple," to "Becoming Parents," to "Raising Adolescents" and "Launching Children." It educates about the predictable stresses of each stage of development, and offers guidelines and hands-on exercises for achieving a healthy adjustment in each stage of family life. A chapter on "Trouble Shooting" offers couples an opportunity to plot their own predictable stress points on the family journey, thereby allowing them to better master their particular life struggles. A chapter on "Divorce: Crisis and Transformation" offers advice to parents for helping their children and themselves through trying times. A chapter on "Stepfamilies" provides wisdom about the stages of stepfamily development that make remarriage rewarding, helping families avoid the pitfalls that cause over half of second marriages to fail. Learn what makes families work-from structure and communication to family style and characteristics of healthy marital relationships. Cutting edge research is enlivened through real-life questions about marriage, family, and parenting that have been answered by Dr. Peterson at www.makinghealthyfamilies.com