Handbook of Contemporary Families

"Coleman and Ganong recruited an outstanding group of scholars to contribute to the Handbook of Contemporary Families. Authors represent a wide array of disciplines, and the topics touch on every aspect of family life. The organization of the book is excellent and the writing of high quality. Scholars and students alike will find the book a valuable resource."

                                                                                  --Alan Booth, Penn State University

"Marilyn Coleman and Larry Ganong have produced a comprehensive handbook exploring the changes and challenges confronting contemporary families. The chapters, written by some of the most distinguished social scientists studying families, give a balanced research-based analysis of some of the most contentious issues of our time."

                                                                --E. Mavis Hetherington, University of Virginia

"This useful handbook brings together many of the most important new findings and provocative ideas about America′s diverse and changing families. An excellent resource."

    --Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America′s Changing Families

What has happened to marriage and families? What is the current state of families? Where are families headed? Where is family scholarship headed? As families face challenges today brought on by events that have changed their perception of the world, there is a need for a clear assessment of what has happened to families in the past and an examination of some data-based theories about what is likely to happen in the future.

The Handbook of Contemporary Families explores how families have changed in the last 30 years and speculates about future trends. Editors Marilyn Coleman and Lawrence H. Ganong, along with a multidisciplinary group of contributors, critique the approaches used to study relationships and families while suggesting modern approaches for the new millennium. The Handbook looks at how changes within the contemporary family have been reflected in family law, family education, and family therapy.

Features of this Handbook: 

• Examines a diverse array of families and relationships in which people live, including chapters on alternative lifestyles, gay and lesbian relationships, economically distressed families, religion and families, racial and ethnic diversity, a feminist vision for families, older families, and the effect of computers and other technology on family relationships 
• Includes both a historical review and future speculation on the subjects covered in each chapter 
• Interdisciplinary contributors representing a variety of fields such as history, family studies, sociology, law, therapy, social work, psychology, nursing, and human development

The Handbook of Contemporary Families is an excellent resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, educators, and practitioners who study and work with families in several disciplines, including Family Science, Human Development and Family Studies, Sociology, Marriage & Family Therapy, and Social Work.

Marilyn Coleman, EdD, is a curators’ distinguished professor emerita of Human Development and Family Science at the University of Missouri (United States). She is also an affiliate faculty member with women’s and gender studies at the University of Missouri and a fellow in the MU Center for Excellence on Aging and the MU Center for Family Policy and Research. She is a fellow in the National Council on Family Relations. She has conducted research on stepfamilies for more than 35 years. Her recent work with Lawrence H. Ganong has focused on (a) intergenerational family responsibilities following divorce and remarriage and (b) the development, maintenance, and dissolution of steprelationships over time. He and Ganong have co-authored over 220 articles and book chapters as well as nine books. She was the second female editor of the leading family journal in the world, Journal of Marriage and Family, from 1992 to 1996, and has been either an associate editor or on the Editorial Board of six additional journals. Lawrence Ganong, Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor of Human Development and Family Science and Nursing at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has co-authored over 310 journal articles and chapters and 10 books and has received 12 grants from public and private institutions. Ganong’s research program has focused on how post-divorce families, particularly stepfamilies, develop and maintain satisfying and effective relationships. Ganong is a Fellow in the National Council on Family Relations and the Gerontological Society of America. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Council on Family Relations, the Council on Contemporary Families, and The Stepfamily Association of America.