Single Parents

A timely revision of a compassionate guide to the practical and emotional aspects of divorce The first edition of Divorce and New Beginnings helped countless men and women emerge from ruptured relationships and build new lives. Enriched with new insights uncovered by researchers and in the author's work with over 2,000 families, this sensitive guidebook provides a wealth of proven coping skills to help you weather the difficult times and eventually build new beginnings-for yourself and, if you have them, your children. Genevieve Clapp is with you every step of the way as you deal with and recover from your divorce, addressing your daily problems and long-term concerns with a real-world practicality. Utilizing numerous case studies and coping tools, Clapp provides you with a road map of what lies ahead, including tips on navigating problematic situations such as choosing a lawyer and dealing with anger and anxiety. Geared directly to your specific needs, Divorce and New Beginnings will help you nurture healthy, committed relationships and successful stepfamilies, protect your children, and build a rewarding new life. Includes updated information on co-parenting and new romantic relationships Offers hundreds of practical suggestions and effective coping strategies based on the findings and collective insights of experts Features a strong focus on children and divorce, with a step-by-step guide on fostering their long-term adjustment

Completely revised and expanded from four to five volumes, this new edition of the Handbook of Parenting appears at a time that is momentous in the history of parenting. Parenting and the family are today in a greater state of flux, question, and redefinition than perhaps ever before. We are witnessing the emergence of striking permutations on the theme of parenting: blended families, lesbian and gay parents, and teen versus fifties first-time moms and dads. One cannot but be awed on the biological front by technology that now not only renders postmenopausal women capable of childbearing, but also presents us with the possibility of designing babies. Similarly on the sociological front, single parenthood is a modern day fact of life, adult child dependency is on the rise, and parents are ever less certain of their own roles, even in the face of rising environmental and institutional demands that they take increasing responsibility for their offspring. The Handbook of Parenting concerns itself with: different types of parents-mothers and fathers, single, adolescent, and adoptive parents; basic characteristics of parenting-behaviors, knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about parenting; forces that shape parenting-evolution, genetics, biology, employment, social class, culture, environment, and history; problems faced by parents-handicap, marital difficulties, drug addiction; and practical concerns of parenting-how to promote children's health, foster social adjustment and cognitive competence, and interact with school, legal, and public officials. Contributors to the Handbook of Parenting have worked in different ways toward understanding all these diverse aspects of parenting, and all look to the most recent research and thinking in the field to shed light on many topics every parent wonders about. Each chapter addresses a different but central topic in parenting; each is rooted in current thinking and theory, as well as classical and modern research in that topic; each has been written to be read and absorbed in a single sitting. In addition, each chapter follows a standard organization, including an introduction to the chapter as a whole, followed by historical considerations of the topic, a discussion of central issues and theory, a review of classical and modern research, forecasts of future directions of theory and research, and a set of conclusions. Of course, contributors' own convictions and research are considered, but contributions to this new edition present all major points of view and central lines of inquiry and interpret them broadly. The Handbook of Parenting is intended to be both comprehensive and state of the art. As the expanded scope of this second edition amply shows, parenting is naturally and closely allied with many other fields.

Debates about the family have often focused on the idealized family of the 1950s-middle class - two parents & two children. This book looks at the majority of American families who do not live this ideal, including divorced families & step-families.

The Handbook of Family Communication offers a comprehensive exploration and discussion of current research and theory on family interaction. Integrating the varying perspectives and issues addressed by family researchers, theorists, and practitioners, this volume offers a unique and timely view of family interaction and family relationships. With a synthesis of research on issues key to understanding family interaction, as well as an analysis of many theoretical and methodological choices made by researchers studying family communication, the Handbook serves to advance the field by reframing old questions and stimulating new ones. The contents are comprised of chapters covering: theoretical and methodological issues influencing current conceptions of family; research and theory centering around the family life course; communication occurring in a variety of family forms; individual family members and their relationships; dynamic communication processes taking place in families; and family communication embedded in social, cultural, and physical contexts. The volume concludes with a commentary emphasizing the themes that tie the chapters together. Highlighting the work of scholars across disciplines-communication, social psychology, clinical psychology, sociology, family studies, and others-this volume captures the breadth and depth of research on family communication and family relationships. The internationally-known contributors approach family interaction from a variety of theoretical perspectives and focus on topics ranging from the influence of structural characteristics on family relationships to the importance of specific communication processes. The Handbook of Family Communication serves as a benchmark of the current state of scholarship in this dynamic area, offering new perspectives on extant literature, as well as important theoretical and methodological recommendations for future work. As such, it will be of great value to researchers and theorists studying family interaction and family relationships. It will also serve as a text for graduate-level coursework in family studies, family communication, relational communication, and related areas. Additionally, practitioners who work with families will be well served by this book, and counselors and therapists will find the theory and research presented here extremely relevant to their work with individuals and families.

Since its original publication two decades ago, this widely adopted text has been acclaimed as a milestone in the clinical literature. Surveying the vast diversity of family forms, life challenges, and value systems in our rapidly changing society, the volume has helped redefine the boundaries of "normal family life" for generations of students and practitioners. This fully revised and expanded third edition once again brings together leading contributors to illuminate the complexities of healthy family functioning across varied structural arrangements and sociocultural and developmental contexts.

New in the Third Edition

Existing chapters have been updated or fully rewritten to reflect the latest theories, research, demographic trends, and clinical practices. Seven entirely new chapters address single parent families, immigrant families, spirituality, family resilience, key processes in marital success and failure, and more.