Families and Their Social Worlds [Rental Edition]

This print textbook is available for students to rent for their classes. The Pearson print rental program provides students with affordable access to learning materials, so they come to class ready to succeed.
For courses in Sociology of Family

Study the family through a sociological lens
Families and Their Social Worlds leads students to view the family on a macro level by examining current policies and how those policies impact families. Author Karen Seccombe encourages students to think about families beyond their own personal experiences, and even beyond family structure in the United States. Integrated coverage of important policy considerations throughout each chapter illustrates what is currently being done, and perhaps more importantly what can be done, to strengthen families and intimate relationships. The 4th Edition has been updated with specific examples and ideas that today’s students will find relatable, as well as the latest statistics and research findings.

Karen Seccombe (Meenan) considers herself a freelance academic these days. Over the course of her career she has been a professor at the University of Alaska, University of Florida, and Portland State University. Most recently she enjoyed teaching in the Semester at Sea program, where she traveled to Japan, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, South Africa, Ghana, and Morocco with nearly 600 students.  While the ship was at sea, Karen taught Marriage and Family Relationships, Gender and Society, and Social Problems, enriching her courses with the in-port opportunities she and her students experienced.
 
Karen is a proud community college graduate, which she credits as giving her “a great start in life.” She received her BA in sociology from California State University, Chico; her MSW in health and social welfare policy from the University of Washington; and her PhD in sociology from Washington State University.
 
She is the author of Exploring Marriages and Families, 3rd Edition; Social Problems, 16th Edition with William Kornblum; “So You Think I Drive a Cadillac?”: Welfare Recipients’ Perspectives on the System and its Reform, 4th Edition; Families in Poverty (all with Pearson); and Just Don’t Get Sick: Access to Health Care in the Aftermath of Welfare Reform with Kim Hoffman (Rutgers University Press). She is a National Council on Family Relations fellow, and a member of the American Sociological Association and the Pacific Sociological Association, where she has held elective offices.
 
Karen lives on an island off the coast of Washington State with her husband Richard, a health economist; her 18-year-old daughter, Natalie Rose, who is off to college in the fall; and her 16-year-old daughter, Olivia Lin, whose photos are sprinkled through this book. In her spare time she enjoys hiking with her pack, which includes her dogs, Bart and Stella; cycling the coastal back roads of the San Juan Islands; and looking for whales and other sea life that call the Salish Sea their home.

1. Families and the Sociological Imagination
2. Families Throughout the World
3. Families Throughout History
4. Sex, Gender, and Families
5. Social Stratification, Social Class, and Families
6. Race, Ethnicity, and Families
7. Courtship, Intimacy, and Partnering
8. Marriage as a Personal Relationship and Social Institution
9. Becoming a Parent
10. Raising Children
11. Families and the Work They Do
12. Aging Families
13. Violence and Abuse
14. Divorce, Repartnering, and Remarriage
15. Summing up Families and the Sociological Imagination