Written by an international team of experts, this comprehensive volume investigates modern-day family relationships, partnering, and parenting set against a backdrop of rapid social, economic, cultural, and technological change. * Covers a broad range of topics, including social inequality, parenting practices, children s work, changing patterns of citizenship, multi-cultural families, and changes in welfare state protection for families * Includes many European, North American and Asian examples written by a team of experts from across five continents * Features coverage of previously neglected groups, including immigrant and transnational families as well as families of gays and lesbians * Demonstrates how studying social change in families is fundamental for understanding the transformations in individual and social life across the globe * Extensively reworked from the original Companion published over a decade ago: three-quarters of the material is completely new, and the remainder has been comprehensively updated

Table of Contents:
Notes of Contributors viii Preface xvi PART I GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILIES 1 Family Systems of the World: Are They Converging? 3 Goran Therborn 2 Changing European Families 20 Trude Lappegard 3 American Families: Demographic Trends and Social Class 43 Wendy D. Manning and Susan L. Brown 4 Family Change in East Asia 61 Yen-Chun Cheryl Chen and Jui-Chung Allen Li 5 Changes and Inequalities in Latin American Families 83 Irma Arriagada PART II DIVERSITY, INEQUALITY, AND IMMIGRATION 6 Same-Sex Families 109 Timothy J. Biblarz, Megan Carroll and Nathaniel Burke 7 Family Poverty 132 Rys Farthing 8 Transnational Families 155 Loretta Baldassar, Majella Kilkey, Laura Merla and Raelene Wilding 9 Ethnic Diversity in the United Kingdom: Family Forms and Conjugality 176 Alison Shawnts 10 Immigrant Families and the Shifting Color Line in the United States 194 Karen D. Pyke PART III FAMILY FORMS AND FAMILY INFLUENCES 11 Cohabitation: Recent Research and Implications 217 Rhiannon A. Kroeger and Pamela J. Smock 12 Partnerships, Family, and Personal Configurations 236 Eric D. Widmer 13 Health and Families 255 Deborah Carr, Kristen W. Springer and Kristi Williams 14 Religion and Families 277 Christopher G. Ellison and Xiaohe Xu PART IV FAMILY PROCESSES 15 Divorce: Trends, Patterns, Causes, and Consequences 303 Juho Harkonen 16 Partner Violence in World Perspective 323 Emily M. Douglas, Denise A. Hines and Murray A. Straus 17 Money Management, Gender, and Households 344 Sean R. Lauer and Carrie Yodanis 18 Family Transmission of Social and Cultural Capital 361 Toby L. Parcel and Joshua A. Hendrix PART V LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVES 19 Adult Intergenerational Relationships 385 Matthijs Kalmijn 20 Children s Families: A Child-Centered Perspective 404 Jacqueline Scott 21 Fathers and Fatherhood 424 Kevin M. Roy 22 Aging Families and the Gendered Life Course 444 Phyllis Moen, Jack Lam and Melanie N.G. Jackson Part VI Families in Context 23 Public Policy and Families 467 Pernilla Tunberger and Wendy Sigle-Rushton 24 Family Policy and Wives Economic Independence 485 Hadas Mandel 25 Assisted Reproduction, Genetic and Genomic Technologies, and Family Life 508 Martin Richards 26 Sex, Family, and Social Change 527 Judith Treas and Thomas Alan Elliott 27 The Global Chaos of Love: Toward a Cosmopolitan Turn in the Sociology of Love and Families 547 Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim Index 560