African American Relationships, Marriages, and Families, Second Edition is a historically and culturally centered research-based text designed for use in undergraduate, graduate, and community-based courses on African American relationships, marriages, and families. Complete with numerous exercises, this volume can be used by current and future helping professionals to guide singles and couples by increasing single and partner-awareness, and respect and appreciation for difference. In addition, singles and couples learn skills for effective communication and conflict resolution and ultimately how to develop and maintain healthy relationships, marriages, and families. This second edition includes updates and revisions to current chapters and also features two new chapters: one on parenting and one on same-gender loving/LGBTQ.

"African American Male/Female Relationships: A Reader" examines the social, economic, political, and cultural forces that present challenges to the formation and development of healthy relationships and, ultimately, marriages and families. The anthology pushes students to think critically about how ideologies and values stemming from these forces shape their own ideas, values, and perceptions and to examine their own approach to relationships.
"African American Male/Female Relationships: A Reader" is divided into eleven topical units:
LoveGenderDatingNegative Images and StereotypesHealth and NutritionIntimate Partner ViolenceParentingSexuality/Sexual HealthIncarcerationAlternative LifestylesMarriage
The journal articles and book chapters included in the reader are critical for the serious study of African American male-female relationships.
"African American Male/Female Relationships: A Reader" is designed to be used with "African American Relationships, Marriages, and Families: An Introduction." It is also an excellent supplemental reader for Sociology or African American Studies courses that focus on marriage and family.
Patricia Dixon, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Georgia State University. She is the author of "African American Relationships, Marriages, and Families: An Introduction" and "TLC: Talking and Listening With Care: A Communication Guide for Singles and Couples," and is a CCE Board Certified Coach.

Polygyny -- the practice of having multiple wives -- has existed since ancient times and is still practiced in many countries throughout the world. In this book, Dr. Patricia Dixon argues that the practice is one the African American community should adopt as well. According to Dixon, the concept of monogamy was spread by Christianity and created an unrealistic and romanticized notion of marriage that leaves many women, especially African American women, unfulfilled and unsupported. She offers many reasons to support polygyny, most importantly, the shortage of available African American men. Through extensive interviews, she offers an insider's look at polygynous marriages, showing readers its benefits and disadvantages, interpersonal dynamics, how financial, sexual, and parental responsibilities are determined, and the legal, moral, and cultural challenges that must be overcome in order to make polygynous marriage possible within American society.

Two professors present a guide to better communication for singles and couples that shows better ways to talk and listen.

"Oh wow! The read of the summer-stunning and beautiful, I smiled and I cried . . . heart stopping . . . truly magnificent." -Goodreads reviewer, five stars Time is running out for an ageing rock star living in France, in this compelling epic by the author of Birthright . . . Older and wiser, Joe Jarrett, who was once the lead singer of one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, has left his wild and hedonistic days behind, preferring a quieter life in his farmhouse by the sea. Family is everything to Joe, and when his beloved son, Ace, brings his new girlfriend, Edie, to visit, things seem to be going well. But when a shocking expose points a finger at the band, including historic claims of rape and murder, it appears everything Joe holds dear is about to be torn apart. As Joe is forced to face the consequences of the past, threatening letters arrive at the farmhouse. A stalker is on the loose and is determined to make him pay. But who is she? Meanwhile, newcomer Edie, is living a lie and harbours a shocking secret of her own. When all is revealed, will Joe's life will be changed forever, and can anything be the same again?