Sociology of Family

Family, Marriage, Children and Parenting, and other forms of close relationships. The social, cultural, political and economic impacts of changing families. Contemporary society is changing rapidly and we are seeing some relatively new forms emerge.

The "ideal image" of two biological parents and children living in harmony, is not realistic anymore. The family has many forms, like the two-parent family, single-parent family, blended family, same-sex family and adoptive family.

As an insitution family socializes individuals to be productive members of society. Family has within its boundaries a set of norms, values, statuses, and roles which are organized or designed to guide or meet specific goals for the overall society.

As a social system, the family is viewed as an entity which consists of various interrelated parts or statuses that perform particular functions or roles. Further, the family as a system is part of a larger system or society and contributes to its functioning.

As a social group, the focus is on each individual members of the family in question. What each person brings to the family and how each person contributes to the relationships with other individuals in the family determines the reality within each family.

Everyone looks to his family for guidance, support, and a sense of belonging. Family is the most important social institution as it is our first encounter with socialization processes.

Whether we examine the family as an institution, system, or group, the interest of sociologists who study the family begins with a fascination of the family entity and the relationships within its boundaries. One of the big issues or challenges within family studies lies in its definition.

There are growing numbers of so-called "variant family forms" in society. The family has many forms, like the two-parent family, single-parent family, blended family, same-sex family and adoptive family.

Marriage & Family Processes - Part of Trinity University's A Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace, this resource is organized into: the Spectrum of Families Relations across Cultures and Time; Cultural Factors Shaping Family Striker & Processes; Stages of Coupling; Relations between Husbands & Wives Through Time; Parenting; Singlehood and Alternative Family Forms; Other Family Players, Beyond the Nuclear Cast; Marital Disunions; Institutions Affecting and Affected by Family Systems; and general resources. This site includes overviews, statistics, and references to sources used. - trinity.edu/~mkearl/family.html

Sociology of Children and Youth Section - The purpose of the Section on Children and Youth is to encourage the development and dissemination of sociological perspectives on children in the areas of research, theory, policy, practice, and teaching. Here, the term "children" includes every human being from infancy to the legal majority. asanet.org/sections/children.html

Sociology of Family - Bibliography

Anderson, Stephen A. and Ronald M. Sabatelli, 1999 (2nd edition), Family Interaction: A Multigenerational Developmental Perspective, Needham Heights, MA, Allyn and Bacon.

Scanzoni, John, 2000, Designing Families: The Search for Self and Community in the Information Age, Thousand Oaks, CA, Pine Forge Press.

The Family, 9th Ed. by J. Ross Eshleman.
Marriage and Family: An Introduction Using MicroCase, 2nd ed., by Kevin Demmitt.

Finn-Stevenson, M. (1999). Schools of the 21st century: Linking child care and education. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Kathe, J. (1999). Between home and school: Cultural interchange in an elementary classroom. The series on cultural interchange. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Kreider, H., Mayer, E., & Vaughan, P. (1999). Helping parents communicate better with schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project.

Landsverk, R. A. (1999). Families, schools, communities: Learning together. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Families in Education Program. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED4333953)

Levine, E. (1999). Latino families: Getting involved in your children's education. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Family Research Project.

Lopez, M. E. (1999). When discourses collide: An ethnography of migrant children at home and in school. New York: Peter Lang.

Mayer, E., Kreider, H., & Vaughan, P. (1999). How busy parents can help their children learn and develop. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Family Research Project.

Nord, C. W. (1999). Father involvement in schools. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

Novick, R. (1999). Family involvement and beyond: School-based child and family support programs. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Education Laboratory.

Rodgers, J., & Lyon, L. (1999). Hispanic families in our school: Knowing the roots of our growing branches. (ERIC Document Reproduction Services No. ED432422)

Stein, M. R., & Thorkildsen, R. J. (1999). Parent involvement in education: Insights and applications from the research. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappan International.

Weikart, D. P. (Ed.). (1999). What should young children learn? Teacher and parent views in 15 countries. MI: High/Scope Press.

Welch, M. D., & White, B. (1999). Teacher and parent expectations for kindergarten readiness.

Tamara Hareven, Transitions: The Family and the Life Course in Historical Perspective (1978);

Susan J. Ferguson (editor), Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families (2nd edition) (Ferguson)

Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., et al., Managing to Make It: Urban Families and Adolescent Success (Furstenberg Et Al.)

Raquel Kennedy Bergen, Wife Rape: Understanding the Response of Survivors and Service Providers (Bergen)

Tamara Hareven, Family Time and Industrial Time: The Relationship between the Family and Work in a New England Industrial Community, pp. xi and 154-188 (Hareven)

Sociology of Families
by David M. Newman, Elizabeth Grauerholz
Organized around current issues and changes in the family; it’s ‘reader friendly’, it makes connections between a sociological study of the family
"Never before have I seen a text that offers such a unique and well-rounded view of the complexities of the family." - KRISTIN BATES, California State University, San Marcos
Sociology of Families, Second Edition, begins at the level of the individual by examining familiar contemporary issuesž topics students are likely to know or feel strongly about.

Advancing Family Theories
by James M. White - September 7, 2004
A companion text for graduate courses on family theories. Where we have gone astray in family theory and how we can find our way again.
How can the study of families be scientific? What is the difference between postmodern and positivistic approaches? What is the role of models and metaphors in constructing our theoretical knowledge? In Advancing Family Theories, author James M. White addresses such difficult questions that have been longstanding issues within the field of family studies and examines these matters from a social science perspective.
Advancing Family Theories explores two contemporary theories of the family-rational choice theory and transition theory. These diametrically different approaches illuminate what differing theories reveal about families. The book also discusses how meta-theories can assist in building and refining theory and offers insight on the "understanding versus explanation" debate. Advancing Family Theories gives students a precise notion of what a theory is and how theories work in research. The book not only looks at philosophical realms but also examines particular substantive theory to explain and predict family behaviors.

New Poverty : Families in Postmodern Society (Contributions in Sociology Vol 115) - David Cheal
Analyzes the relationships between current family situations and the risks of being poor, locating specific causes of poverty within a broader context of problems in modernity and arguing that the sociology of poverty has entered a new, postmodern phase.

The Sociology of the Family: A Reader by Graham A. Allan (Editor), Graham Allan (Editor)
This volume provides students with the essential readings for understanding the dominant issues in the sociology of the family.

Family Man: Fatherhood, Housework and Gender Equity
by Scott Coltrane
A lot of attention has been focused recently on the role of the father in the family. Coltrane, coauthor of Sociology of Marriage and the Famil y (1991) and assistant sociology professor at University of California at Riverside, takes an in-depth, serious look at the role of the male in the family. He documents the historical division of labor between husband and wife before investigating shared parenting practices that have become more commonplace in those families where two parents have jobs. Because research has previously involved mostly white, middle-class families, Coltrane also considers Mexican American households. He concludes with a look at social trends and attempts to predict their effect on the future of the family.
Readers will find an insightful discussion of precisely how and why family life has changed, what forms it may take in the future, and what new kinds of fathers may be on the horizon. He provides, for instance, an illuminating history of the family that shows that, far from being a fixed structure, the family has always adapted to changing economic, social, and ideological pressures. And by examining how families operate in a variety of non-industrial societies, he demonstrates that our own notions of gender-specific work and parenting roles are culturally rather than biologically determined, and thus inherently flexible.

Family Theories: An Introduction
by James M. White, David M. Klein
This solid revision of the best-selling Family Theories remains the only single-volume textbook to present family theory in a clear, approachable manner appropriate for both advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. James White and David Klein draw upon seven major theoretical frameworks developed by key social scientists to explain variation in family life, including the exchange, symbolic-interaction, family life course development, systems, conflict, feminist, and ecological theoretical frameworks.
An incisive, thorough introduction to current theories of the family, Family Theories balances the diversity and richness of a broad scope of work from different perspectives with ease of use in a one-semester course. Recommended for courses in Theories of the Family, Marriage & the Family, Family Studies, and Sociology of the Family.

Handbook of Family Diversity
by David H. Demo (Editor), Katherine R. Allen (Editor), Mark A. Fine (Editor)
The status of the American family has been the topic of considerable debate in recent years. As demographic changes make our country more multicultural, and as new types of family forms become more common, it is essential for sociologists, social workers, and psychologists to understand the full range of diversity in American families.
The Handbook of Family Diversity fills this gap in scholarship by providing a comprehensive discussion of several key dimensions where families differ: race, socioeconomic status, family structure, and sexual orientation and gender.

Sociology of Families : Readings
by Cheryl Albers (Editor)
"Cheryl Albers’ reader for use in family sociology courses is a cutting edge collection of articles about cutting edge topics. She addresses nine topics central and critical to family sociology and provided thoughtful articles from diverse perspectives for each, from adolescent childbearing to the construction of family policy. It could enrich any instructor's approach to the burning questions in the field of family sociology." Dana Vannoy, University of Cincinnati

Early Sociology of the Family (Making of Sociology)
by Bryan S. Turner (Editor)
These titles, which helped to shape this developing field during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, include: John F. McLennan's Primitive Marriage [1865]; W. H. R. Rivers' Kinship and Social Organisation [1914]; C. N. Starke's The Primitive Family [1889]; E. R. Groves' and W. F. Ogburn's American Marriage and Family Relations [1928].

Sociology of the Family: Investigating Family Issues
by Lee D. Millar Bidwell, Brenda J. Vander Mey
Sociology of the Family includes in every chapter an article relevant to the topic at hand. These articles include excerpts from well-known books and journal articles. This book is unlike others in which theory and research methods are briefly mentioned in an opening chapter (never to be discussed again). In Sociology of the Family, the authors not only cover theory and methods in separate chapters, but theoretical perspectives are continually applied and methodological issues are consistently discussed in consequent chapters throughout the book. With a strong emphasis on cross-cultural family dynamics, family patterns and trends and controversies in the U.S. by comparing them with other national or global trends. For anyone interested in Sociology of Family, Marriage and Family, or Comparative Family Systems.
Sociology of the Family includes in every chapter an article relevant to the topic at hand. These articles include excerpts from well-known books and journal articles.In Sociology of the Family, the authors not only cover theory and methods in separate chapters. With a strong emphasis on cross-cultural family dynamics, excellent for courses that focus primarily on the U.S. or attempt to contextualize family patterns and trends and controversies in the U.S. by comparing them with other national or global trends. For anyone interested in Sociology of Family, Marriage and Family, or Comparative Family Systems.

Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged
by Christopher Lasch
Compelling social commentary, and brilliantly written, perhaps not surprising since Lasch was not a social scientist, but rather a professor of English Literature, at Columbia if I recall right, but in any case, at one of the Ivy League colleges. Lasch became interested in social trends, and ended up writing this fine book on the decline and destruction of the family in American life.

Family and Community Life of Older People by Chris Phillipson, Miriam Bernard, Judith Phillips, Jim Ogg
Family and Community Life of Older People reflects the interest in how older people are affected by social change. The book focuses on three areas: Bethnal Green in London; Wolverhampton in the Midlands; and Woodford in Essex. Using these examples, Phillipson explores changes to the family and community lives of older people.