How Families Matter

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.

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.

Now in its fourth edition, Family Matters offers an enriched discussion on a variety of substantive issues experienced by diverse Canadian families across the life course. Adopting a feminist sociological approach throughout, this popular textbook explores family dynamics through a critical life course theoretical lens. This over-arching perspective is used to examine how social, economic, and historical processes related to gender roles, age and generational location, ethnicity and race, geographical location, and social change shape contemporary family life. As a leading name in sociology, Barbara Mitchell has thoroughly updated the previous edition to reflect timely current events, recent census data, and cutting-edge research. Providing more detailed and nuanced discussions of many areas including life course and other styles of critical theorizing on families, this new edition examines the history of slavery and Black family life in Canada, Indigenous families, foreign/temporary workers, intersectional and racialized processes influencing families, youth activism, transgender children, technology and social media, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aging families. Approachable, concise, and filled with discussion questions, activities, and resources for further reading, Family Matters is the perfect resource for students enrolled in introductory or advanced level courses in family sociology and gender studies. FEATURES - Up-to-date material featuring current events, recent research studies and statistics, including census and other national data sets - New and expanded content on a wide range of timely topics, such as Indigenous and racialized family life, transgender children, technology and social media ,and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Combining empirical evidence with indices to measure mattering, Family Matters: The Importance of Mattering to Family in Adolescence explores the inverse relationship between mattering and dysfunctional behavior in adolescence. Defines mattering and distinguishes among the three ways that people can matter to others: awareness, importance, and reliance Utilizes empirical evidence from a quantitative analyses of data from a nationwide survey 2,004 adolescents to support author’s assertions Explores the impact of structural and demographic factors such as family structure in developing of a sense of mattering in adolescents. Includes helpful indices, including his Mattering Index and Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Index Suggests how parents, teachers, and other significant people in the lives of adolescents can work to instill a sense of mattering in those under their care

"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.

Helicopter parents—the kind that continue to hover even in college—are one of the most ridiculed figures of twenty-first-century parenting, criticized for creating entitled young adults who boomerang back home. But do involved parents really damage their children and burden universities? In this book, sociologist Laura T. Hamilton illuminates the lives of young women and their families to ask just what role parents play during the crucial college years. Hamilton vividly captures the parenting approaches of mothers and fathers from all walks of life—from a CFO for a Fortune 500 company to a waitress at a roadside diner. As she shows, parents are guided by different visions of the ideal college experience, built around classed notions of women’s work/family plans and the ideal age to “grow up.” Some are intensively involved and hold adulthood at bay to cultivate specific traits: professional helicopters, for instance, help develop the skills and credentials that will advance their daughters’ careers, while pink helicopters emphasize appearance, charm, and social ties in the hopes that women will secure a wealthy mate. In sharp contrast, bystander parents—whose influence is often limited by economic concerns—are relegated to the sidelines of their daughter’s lives. Finally, paramedic parents—who can come from a wide range of class backgrounds—sit in the middle, intervening in emergencies but otherwise valuing self-sufficiency above all. Analyzing the effects of each of these approaches with clarity and depth, Hamilton ultimately argues that successfully navigating many colleges and universities without involved parents is nearly impossible, and that schools themselves are increasingly dependent on active parents for a wide array of tasks, with intended and unintended consequences. Altogether, Parenting to a Degree offers an incisive look into the new—and sometimes problematic—relationship between students, parents, and universities.

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