[Ebook PDF] The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate Relationships in a Changing Society, 13th Edition

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[Ebook PDF] The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate Relationships in a Changing Society, 13th Edition

ISBN-13: 978-1305503106
ISBN-10: 1305503104

Author: Bryan Strong (Author), Theodore F. Cohen (Author)

THE MARRIAGE & FAMILY EXPERIENCE: INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS IN A CHANGING SOCIETY brings together all elements of the course — including intimate relationships, family policy, and family issues. Striking a balance between an academic and more functional approach, the authors draw from research to present a sound sociological and family studies base enhanced by perspectives from anthropology, history, psychology, journalism, literature, economics, and gender studies. The book explores recent research on topics such as adoptive parenting, the transgender experience, childbearing patterns, gay and lesbian families, communication and conflict resolution, the influence of popular culture, and working families. Real-life examples and a focus on self-assessment and reflection make the book accessible and encourage students to think and act for themselves. The thirteenth edition retains a progressive approach to diversity yet remains rooted in a positive, pro-family perspective.

PREFACE
This edition is the 13th in the long literary lifetime of The Marriage and Family Experience. Stretching across more than three decades, its contents have changed greatly in keeping with the immense social, cultural, and familial shifts that have occurred since Bryan Strong wrote the first edition. We have witnessed considerable change in definitions of who and what counts as a family, including most recently with the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in 2015. The expectations and experiences people have of their intimate relationships, their marriages, and their relationships with their parents and their children.
continue to change, alongside shifts in the economy, advances in technology, and changes in the culture, perhaps most notably around issues related to gender, sexuality, and intimacy. The book you have before you are a product of and reflects those changes. However, in its objectives, much remains the same. From its first to its present edition, The Marriage and Family Experience has sought to engage students from a range of academic and applied disciplines across a number of different types of institutions, and to stimulate their curiosity about families. The present edition retains that mission by characterizing and conveying the rich diversity of family experience, the dynamic nature of both the institution of family and of individual families, and the many ways in which experiences of relationships, marriages, and families are affected by the wider economic, political, social, and cultural contexts in which we live.
My personal involvement with The Marriage and Family Experience has a shorter history. By the time I entered its life, it was a successful textbook some seven editions old. Now, for the sixth time, I have had the opportunity to revise and update the text. Each time, I have incorporated the latest available research and official statistics on subjects such as sexuality (sexual orientation and expression), marriage, cohabitation, childbirth, childcare, divorce, remarriage, blended families, adoption, abuse, the division of housework, and connections between paid work and family life.
Once again, there are hundreds of new references in this edition, drawn mainly though not exclusively from research in sociology, psychology, and family studies. I have again tried to feature some of the
most interesting issues, controversies, and real-life examples, sometimes drawn straight from recent news stories, popular culture, or narrative accounts, to give readers a better appreciation for how the more academic content applies to real life and to stimulate their fascination with families.
Thinking about my own many years of involvement with The Marriage and Family Experience, I marvel at how much has changed, both in the wider society and in my own family. I have been reminded, on
a profoundly personal level, of the range of family experiences people have and of the dynamic and unpredictable quality of family life. When I first began working on the eighth edition of this book, I was more.
than 20 years into a stable marriage and had no reason to imagine ever being single again or remarrying. My wife and I had two young teenagers who formed the center of our too-hectic life together. I was a husband and father, two roles that I valued above all others and that I juggled along with my career as a sociologist and teacher. In the years since, I have been a full-time caregiver when my wife became ill, a widower after her passing, a single parent, a partner in a long-distance relationship, a remarried husband, a stepfather, and an ex-spouse. Both my son, Dan, now 30 and living more than 2,000 miles away with his girlfriend, Marissa, and my daughter, Allison, now married and living with her husband, Joe, and their two cats, have wonderful and busy lives. Most important, both my kids and their partners seem happy. The two stepsons and stepdaughter that I gained when married to their mom have reached their own milestones: Daniel has graduated college, Molly is about to enter college, and the youngest, Brett, is finishing his first year of high school. During my involvement with this book, I have seen what a rollercoaster ride family life can feel like, with its many ups and downs. Just in the past year, I have had the joy of witnessing my daughter’s wedding and the sadness of being at my mother’s funeral. None of this is unique to my life. If anything, my experiences of marriage, fatherhood, caregiving, widowerhood, single parenting, remarriage, step fatherhood, separation, divorce, and parental loss all just serve to heighten my sensitivity to and appreciation of the many twists and turns that families take, and the various roles and relationships covered in this book. They also are constant reminders to me of how—whether in a single lifetime or across a society—we can neither completely anticipate nor fully control the directions.
our families may take.