Download or read book How Families Still Matter written by Vern L. Bengtson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-10-17 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Table of contents

Download or read book How Families Still Matter written by Vern L. Bengtson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-10-17 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are family influences on youth declining in importance? Are parents less important in shaping the life orientations and achievements of youth than they were a generation ago? What about the consequences of divorce? How Families Still Matter casts doubt on the conventional wisdom about family decline during the last decades of the twentieth century. The authors draw from the longest-running longitudinal study of families in the world--the Longitudinal Study of Generations, conducted at the University of Southern California--to discover whether parents are really less critical in shaping the life choices and achievements of their children than they were a generation ago. They compare the influence of parents on the Baby Boomer generation with that of Baby Boomer parents on their own Generation-X children--and their findings are surprising. Vern Bengtson holds the AARP/University Chair in Gerontology and is Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California. Bengtson has received the Reuben Hill Award from the National Council of Family Relations (1980 and 1986); the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Sociological Association's section on aging (1995); the Robert W. Kleemeier Award from the Gerontological Society of America (1996); and the Ernest W. Burgess Award from the National Council on Family Relation (1998). Timothy J. Biblarz is Associate Professor and Graduate Director in the Sociology Department at the University of Southern California. His papers have appeared in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Social Forces, and other journals. Robert E.L. Roberts is Professor of Sociology at California State University, San Marcos. His articles have appeared in Social Psychology Quarterly, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Sociological Quarterly.

Download or read book We Are Family written by Susan Golombok and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the world's leading experts, this absorbing narrative history of the changing structure of modern families shows how children can flourish in any kind of loving home. The past few decades have seen extraordinary change in the idea of a family. The unit once understood to include two straight parents and their biological children has expanded vastly—same-sex marriage, adoption, IVF, sperm donation, and other forces have enabled new forms to take shape. This has resulted in enormous upheaval and controversy, but as Susan Golombok shows in this compelling and important book, it has also meant the health and happiness of parents and children alike. Golombok's stories, drawn from decades of research, are compelling and dramatic: family secrets kept for years and then inadvertently revealed; children reunited with their biological parents or half siblings they never knew existed; and painful legal battles to determine who is worthy of parenting their own children. Golombok explores the novel moral questions that changing families create, and ultimately makes a powerful argument that the bond between family members, rather than any biological or cultural factor, is what ensures a safe and happy future. We Are Family is unique, authoritative, and deeply humane. It makes an important case for all families—old, new, and yet unimagined.

Download or read book Do Parents Matter written by Robert A. LeVine and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it comes to parenting, more isn't always better-but it is always more tiring In Japan, a boy sleeps in his parents' bed until age ten, but still shows independence in all other areas of his life. In rural India, toilet training begins one month after infants are born and is accomplished with little fanfare. In Paris, parents limit the amount of agency they give their toddlers. In America, parents grant them ever more choices, independence, and attention. Given our approach to parenting, is it any surprise that American parents are too frequently exhausted? Over the course of nearly fifty years, Robert and Sarah LeVine have conducted a groundbreaking, worldwide study of how families work. They have consistently found that children can be happy and healthy in a wide variety of conditions, not just the effort-intensive, cautious environment so many American parents drive themselves crazy trying to create. While there is always another news article or scientific fad proclaiming the importance of some factor or other, it's easy to miss the bigger picture: that children are smarter, more resilient, and more independent than we give them credit for. Do Parents Matter? is an eye-opening look at the world of human nurture, one with profound lessons for the way we think about our families.

Download or read book How Families Matter written by Pamela Braboy Jackson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-06-20 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the ways adults make sense of their family lives in the midst of the complicated debates generated by politicians and social scientists. It finds that parents and siblings cultivate a family identity that both defines who they are and influences who they become.

Download or read book Family Matters written by Rohinton Mistry and published by Emblem Editions. This book was released on 2011-02-18 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in Bombay in the mid-1990s, Family Matters tells a story of familial love and obligation, of personal and political corruption, of the demands of tradition and the possibilities for compassion. Nariman Vakeel, the patriarch of a small discordant family, is beset by Parkinson’s and haunted by memories of his past. He lives with his two middle-aged stepchildren, Coomy, bitter and domineering, and her brother, Jal, mild-mannered and acquiescent. But the burden of the illness worsens the already strained family relationships. Soon, their sweet-tempered half-sister, Roxana, is forced to assume sole responsibility for her bedridden father. And Roxana’s husband, besieged by financial worries, devises a scheme of deception involving his eccentric employer at a sporting goods store, setting in motion a series of events that leads to the narrative’s moving outcome. Family Matters has all the richness, the gentle humour, and the narrative sweep that have earned Mistry the highest of accolades around the world.

Download or read book Your Story Matters written by Leslie Leyland Fields and published by NavPress. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Your Story Matters presents a dynamic and spiritually formative process for understanding and redeeming the past in order to live well in the present and into the future. Leslie Leyland Fields has used and taught this practical and inspiring writing process for decades, helping people from all walks of life to access memory and sift through the truth of their stories. This is not just a book for writers. Each one of us has a story, and understanding God's work in our stories is a vital part of our faith. Through the spiritual practice of writing, we can "remember" his acts among us, "declare his glory among the nations," and pass on to others what we have witnessed of God in this life: the mysterious, the tragic, the miraculous, the ordinary. With a companion video curriculum from RightNow Media, this is a "why not" book as opposed to a "how to" book. Leslie asks each of us an important question: "Why not learn to tell your story, in the context of the grander story of God?"

Download or read book Family Matters written by Jack Wertheimer and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2007 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative look at the current state of Jewish eduction in the United States

Download or read book Reshaping the Work Family Debate written by Joan C. Williams and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States has the most family-hostile public policy in the developed world. Despite what is often reported, new mothers don’t “opt out” of work. They are pushed out by discriminating and inflexible workplaces. Today’s workplaces continue to idealize the worker who has someone other than parents caring for their children. Conventional wisdom attributes women’s decision to leave work to their maternal traits and desires. In this thought-provoking book, Joan Williams shows why that view is misguided and how workplace practice disadvantages men—both those who seek to avoid the breadwinner role and those who embrace it—as well as women. Faced with masculine norms that define the workplace, women must play the tomboy or the femme. Both paths result in a gender bias that is exacerbated when the two groups end up pitted against each other. And although work-family issues long have been seen strictly through a gender lens, we ignore class at our peril. The dysfunctional relationship between the professional-managerial class and the white working class must be addressed before real reform can take root. Contesting the idea that women need to negotiate better within the family, and redefining the notion of success in the workplace, Williams reinvigorates the work-family debate and offers the first steps to making life manageable for all American families.

Download or read book A Private Family Matter written by Victor Rivas Rivers and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-04-29 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a story about how I was saved by love at a time when most people considered me beyond rescue," begins Victor Rivas Rivers in this powerful chronicle of how he escaped the war zone of domestic violence -- too often regarded as a "private family matter" -- and went on to become a good man, a film star, and a prominent activist. The Cuban-born author begins by recalling when he was kidnapped, along with three of his siblings, by his own father, who abandoned Victor's pregnant mother and took the children on a cross-country hell-ride that nearly ended in a fatal collision. This journey of survival portrays with riveting detail how, instead of becoming a madman like his father, Victor was saved by a band of mortal angels. Miraculously, seven families stepped forward, along with teachers and coaches, to empower him on his road from gang member to class president, through harrowing and hilarious football adventures at Florida State and with the Miami Dolphins, to overcoming the Hollywood odds and becoming a champion for all those impacted by domestic violence. Though at times Victor's odyssey is heartbreaking and disturbing, A Private Family Matter is ultimately a triumphant testament to humanity, courage, and love. Profound and poignant, it is a compelling memoir with a cause. Victor Rivers's way of thanking all the angels and advocates who made a difference in his life is by trying to make a difference in all of ours.

Download or read book Fostering Resilience and Well being in Children and Families in Poverty written by Valerie Maholmes and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Fostering Resilience and Well-being in Children and Families in Poverty, Dr. Valerie Maholmes sheds light on the mechanisms and processes that enable children and families to manage and overcome adversity"--

Download or read book Parenting Matters written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-11-21 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Download or read book Handing Down the Faith written by Christian Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new examination of how and why American religious parents seek to pass on religion to their children The most important influence shaping the religious and spiritual lives of children, youth, and teenagers is their parents. A myriad of studies show that the parents of American youth play the leading role in shaping the character of their religious and spiritual lives, even well after they leave home and often for the rest of their lives. We know a lot about the importance of parents in faith transmission. However we know much less about the actual beliefs, feelings, and activities of the parents themselves, what Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk call the "intergenerational transmission of religious faith and practice." To address that gap, this book reports the findings of a new national study of religious parents in the United States. The findings and conclusions in Handing Down the Faith are based on 215 in-depth, personal interviews with religious parents from many traditions and different parts of the country, and sophisticated analyses of two nationally representative surveys of American parents about their religious parenting. Handing Down the Faith explores the background beliefs informing how and why religious parents seek to pass on religion to their children; examines how parenting styles interact with parent religiousness to shape effective religious transmission; shows how parents have been influenced by their experiences as children influenced by their own parents; reveals how religious parents view their congregations and what they most seek out in a local church, synagogue, temple, or mosque; explores the experiences and outlooks of immigrant parents including Latino Catholics, East Asian Buddhists, South Asian Muslims, and Indian Hindus. Smith and Adamczyk step back to consider how American religion has transformed over the last 100 years and to explain why parents today shoulder such a huge responsibility in transmitting religious faith and practice to their children. The book is rich in empirical evidence and unique in many of the topics it explores and explains, providing a variety of sometimes counterintuitive findings that will interest scholars of religion, social scientists interested in the family, parenting, and socialization; clergy and religious educators and leaders; and religious parents themselves.

Download or read book All That Really Matters A McKenzie Family Romance written by Nicole Deese and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2022 Christy and Carol Award Winner Molly McKenzie's bright personality and on-trend fashion and beauty advice have made her a major social media influencer. When her manager-turned-boyfriend tells her of an upcoming audition to host a makeover show for America's underprivileged youth, all her dreams finally seem to be coming true. There's just one catch: she has little experience interacting with people in need. To gain an edge on her competitors, she plans to volunteer for the summer at a transitional program for aged-out foster kids, but the program's director, Silas Whittaker, doesn't find her as charming as her followers do. Despite his ridiculous rules and terms, Molly dives into mentoring, surprising herself with the genuine connections and concern she quickly develops for the girls--and Silas. But just as everything seems perfectly aligned for her professional future, it starts to crumble under the pressure. And as her once-narrow focus opens to the deep needs of those she's come to know, she must face the ones she's neglected inside herself for so long. "In Deese's charming fish-out-of-water tale, a social media influencer finds humility and purpose while trying to find fame. . . . Deese combines to great effect her bracing take on those affected by foster care and Molly's personal evolution. Fans of Rachel Hauck should take a look."--Publishers Weekly

Download or read book Family Matters written by Marianne Kendall and published by Austin Macauley Publishers. This book was released on 2022-11-30 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kimberley Weatherby leads a privileged if rather boring existence with her well-to-do family on the Isle of Man. Her long-time boyfriend has left her. Then two men enter her life: a gorgeous newcomer to the island and a mysterious foreign stranger. Unfortunately, it was the one she doesn’t want that proposes marriage. Meantime she has to navigate some challenging personal relationships. There are her best friends: Lisa, caring but overemotional and Julie, an ambitious single mother with an eye on the financial aspects of life. Then her immediate family presents multiple challenges. Her widowed stepmother, Irene, is demanding and bitter. Older brother Richard is exasperatingly dull, if diligent. And younger brother Bob is full of youthful exuberance and always getting into harmless scrapes – or are they? Her romantic dilemma is quickly overshadowed by a dramatic and tragic event which exposes the secrets of everyone. Reeling from shock she must find the strength to resolve a dangerous situation and deal with repercussions that affect everyone around her.

Download or read book Determined to Matter written by Jen O'Hara and published by Scarletta Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shannon O'Hara, skating down the ice chasing after the puck, comes face to face with a larger-than-life opposing team player. Never one to back down from anything, barely five feet fall, Shannon tangles with the player and ends up with a penalty. As she sits in the penalty box--only thinking about getting out in two minutes--no one would ever imagine that this beautiful, vibrant, and competitive young spirit will be gone in 54 days. The devastating news that 12-year-old Shannon is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor is unfathomable, surreal, and unimaginable. This is the raw and emotional story of the O'Hara's as they prepare for the fight of their lives, and their ultimate loss. Written and inspired by a blog that Dan and Jen O'Hara wrote to keep in touch with their family, friends, and supporters near and far, the story follows the yearlong battle from diagnosis to death and exemplifies how to live the "new normal" every day, no matter what it entails. Shannon's struggle reveals why family, faith, and hope are so important in our daily lives and how the support of a community plays such a vital role through the good times and especially the bad.

Download or read book Family Policy Matters written by Karen Bogenschneider and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-02-23 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition captures the evolving, post-pandemic landscape of family policy—the transformational changes that have occurred within contemporary families and the social, economic, and racial/ethnic disparities that have grown across families. The book draws on policies from around the globe to make an evidence-based case for family policy and its contributions to families and to society. Bogenschneider tackles a significant challenge of our times—the polarization of politics—including why it occurs and how professionals can bridge the divide. Beyond the basics, the book provides best practices for turning analysis into action by drawing on cutting-edge research and a point of view often overlooked in policy books—the voice of policymakers themselves. Imbued with hope yet fundamentally realistic, Bogenschneider applies a relationship-based and strikingly nonpartisan approach for those who want to make a positive difference for families, whether they engage local policymakers in towns, cities and counties; state/national lawmakers; or decision-makers in businesses, nonprofits and philanthropy. Accompanied by updated, web-based teaching materials and a family impact toolkit, this is core reading for undergraduate and/or graduate courses in family or social policy taught in human development and family studies, psychology, counseling, social work, sociology, public policy, political science, and education. It is also essential reading for professionals and policymakers interested in pursuing better public policy for families in all their diversity across the lifespan.