Table of Contents

1. Making Family Choices in a Changing Society.
2. Exploring Relationships and Families.
3. Our Gendered Identities.
4. Our Sexual Selves.
5. Love and Choosing a Life Partner.
6. Living Alone, Cohabiting, Same-Sex Unions, and Other Intimate Relationships.
7. Marriage: From Social Institution to Private Relationship.
8. Deciding About Parenthood.
9. Raising Children in a Diverse Society.
10. Work, Family, and the Economy.
11. Communication in Relationships, Marriages, and Families.
12. Power and Violence in Families.
13. Family Stress, Crisis, and Resilience.
14. Divorce and Relationship Dissolution.
15. Remarriages and Stepfamilies.
16. Aging and Multigenerational Families.

About the Author

Agnes Riedmann is Professor of Sociology at California State University, Stanislaus. She attended Clarke College, Dubuque. She received her bachelor's degree from Creighton University and her doctorate from the University of Nebraska. Her professional areas of interest are theory, family, and the sociology of body image. She is author of Science That Colonizes: A Critique of Fertility Studies in Africa (Temple University Press, 1993). Dr. Riedmann spent academic year 2008-09 as a Fulbright Professor at the Graduate School for Social Research, affiliated with the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, where she taught courses in family, as well as in social policy and in globalization. Mary Ann Lamanna is Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She received her bachelor's degree Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University (St. Louis) in political science, her master's degree in sociology (minor in psychology) from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her doctorate in sociology from the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of EMILE DURKHEIM ON THE FAMILY (Sage, 2002) and co-author of a book on Vietnamese refugees. She has published numerous articles in law, sociology, and medical humanities journals. Research and teaching interests include family, reproduction, and gender and law. Other research has concerned the sociology of literature, specifically "novels of terrorism," and a sociological analysis of Marcel Proust's novel IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME. Susan D. Stewart is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Iowa State University. She received her doctorate in sociology from Bowling Green State University. Dr. Stewart is a family demographer whose research focuses on structural diversity in families and its consequences for family dynamics and child and adult well-being. Stewart is the author of BRAVE NEW STEPFAMILIES: DIVERSE PATHS TOWARD STEPFAMILY LIVING. Her research has been supported by grants from the NICHD, USDA, Joint Center for Poverty Research, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She has published papers on a diverse range of topics, including child and adolescent obesity, eating habits, nutrition, fertility intentions and behavior, child support and visitation, stepchild adoption, and women's financial literacy.