Balanced and comprehensive, scholarly but unintimidating, this collection captures the remarkable diversity of family life and offers a superb collection of current and classic readings for courses in family sociology.

Based on the 1996 Family Law Act, this book looks at how the therapist can work with the different professions involved in a divorce, how children might be consulted, and ways in which vulnerable family members can be protected. 78 pages.

This book explores the development of a new path of transition between adolescence and adulthood in recent generations. Whereas traditionally the transition into adulthood was marked by a clear and irreversible change in condition, we are now seeing a continuance in the role and influence of the family on the young adult. What consequences does this have for our society? Is the persistence of emotional bonds which previously loosened during adolescence, inhibiting young people from developing into full adulthood? The authors present a clear and in-depth analysis of the theoretical framework surrounding the transition into adulthood both from a generational point of view and a relationship-centred perspective. The findings of international research are presented and compared across generations, gender and geographical location within Europe. The different research methods of ‘family related research’ and ‘family research’ are also distinguished and analysed. This volume offers an original and multi-faceted review of this topic. The family is considered as an organization, and the interdependencies and interconnections between its members, the generations and genders investigated. It offers a unique contribution to the current literature and will appeal to an international audience of researchers, policy makers and educators both in academic and professional spheres.

This open access book presents the trends and patterns of demographic and family changes from all eleven countries in the region for the past 50 years. The rich data are coupled with historical, cultural and policy background to facilitate an understanding of the changes that families in Southeast Asia have been going through. The book is structured into two parts. Part A includes three segments preceded by a briefing on Southeast Asia. The first segment focuses on marital and partnership status in the region, particularly marriage rates, age at marriage, incidence of singlehood, cohabitation, and divorce. The second segment focuses on fertility indicators such as fertility rates (total, age-specific, adolescent), age at childbearing, and childlessness. The third presents information on household structures in the region by examining household sizes, and incidence of one-person households, single-parent families, as well as extended and composite households. Part B presents indicators of children and youths well-being.

Of all concepts used by family therapists, the family development framework is among the least studied, in spite of its relevance to understanding spontaneous family change and to facilitating therapeutic intervention. The notion that a "developmental difficulty" underlies the appearance of clinical symptoms has become a time-honored tradition in family therapy just as it has been in individual therapy. Yet, unlike the well-established and well-researched models of child and adult development, those in family development are rudimentary. Despite increasing interest in the family life cycle as a framework for family therapy, relatively little has been done to elucidate the specific dimensions and processes of spontaneous and therapeutically-induced change over the family life cycle. This volume gathers original contributions of some of the most prominent family theorists, researchers, and clinicians of our time to improve our understanding of these important and hitherto neglected domains. The book opens with a comprehensive overview by the editor that outlines contributions to the family life cycle framework from family sociology, and crisis theory. This is followed by a comparative analysis of developmental thinking, explicit or implicit, in the theory and interventions of the major family therapy approaches. Then divided into four parts, FAMILY TRANSITIONS introduces new conceptual models that integrate the temporality of the life cycle approach with systems theory.By their very nature, these models cut across therapeutic orientations and have important clinical applications. In Part II, family therapy's views of development are freed from the confines of the therapist's office, and placed in the context of other disciplines. Chapters provide analysis of changing--or static--sociocultural values that can affect conceptions of development; potential misuse of the concept of "cultural identity" in health, mental health, and education; how "family identity" operates as a vehicle for cultural transmission over generations; and family therapists assumptions about women's development. The role of expected and unexpected events in the family life cycle is the focus of Part III. Chapters on clinical approaches geared to dislocations of life cycle occurrences due to unexpected crises, chronic illnesses, loss, or drug abuse provide illustrations of interventions that utilize, enhance, or potentially detract from the family's developmental flow. Part IV explores the articulation of the life cycle framework within four major family therapy orientations: intergenerational, structural, systemic, and symbolic-experiential. Each of these chapters endeavors to elucidate: what is the place of family development in each orientation; concepts of continuity and change; use of the concept of stages, transitions, or developmental tasks; the specific dimensions that change in most families over time; and the links between family dysfunction and life cycle issues. Finally, each chapter illustrates through clinical example assessment strategies, formulation of treatment goals and interventions as these emerge from a particular life cycle model. FAMILY TRANSITIONS presents a significant advance in our understanding of functional and dysfunctional family development and offers a range of interventions to promote developmental change. It is an invaluable resource for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and counselors that will also interest human development professionals, family sociologists, and family researchers. FAMILY TRANSITIONS can serve as a developmentally oriented textbook for teaching family therapy in academic and professional settings.

Designed for use on introductory sociology courses, Family Studies is the first UK text book in the subject. Each chapter is designed to work as an individual units of study in a course on the family.

Effective interventions for alcohol problems that devastate families An individual’s alcohol abuse can devastate the rest of his or her family in various ways. Familial Responses to Alcohol Problems explores the latest research and state-of-the-art programs that provide effective strategies for prevention and treatment. Experts in the fields of alcohol and families discuss the most current studies, innovative programs, and practical therapy approaches that focus on the goal of bringing alcoholic individuals into recovery and mending the psychological impact on other family members. This single volume provides specific guides and evidence-based best practices, making it invaluable to any professional providing therapy or counseling to families experiencing the issues and challenges involved in recovery. Drawing upon the perspectives from family systems theory, Familial Responses to Alcohol Problems reviews the current literature, research programs, and therapy approaches to family response to alcohol. This comprehensive text discusses the topic from various points in the lifespan, including childhood, adolescence and youth, and older age. Discussions include examining situations when parents have the disease that impacts their children and other relatives, parents interacting with children to prevent or reduce a child’s involvement with alcohol, attempting to involve a family member in seeking help with alcoholism, children intervening in a parent’s alcohol abuse, couples who enter into recovery and deal with subsequent issues stemming from that misuse, co-occurrence of other disorders, and recovery that includes attention to spiritual development. Topics discussed in Familial Responses to Alcohol Problems include: the Michigan Longitudinal Study insight into the effect alcohol abuse in the family has on three developmental pathways of children three researched-based approaches to treating adolescent alcohol misuse in a family an overview describing the “invisible epidemic” of alcohol abuse by older family members three stages families encounter as they advance in recovery bringing a family member into treatment the impact of family recovery on members a research-based approach to bring the individual with the alcohol problem into contact with professionals evolving issues in recovery process, including couple identity, family origin issues, couple interdependence issues in four common comorbidity diagnoses with alcohol problems how and when spiritual issues may be used in family recovery Familial Responses to Alcohol Problems is a timely single resource presenting up-to-date research and therapy approaches, making this text important reading for educators, therapists, addictions counselors, and graduate students.