Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families, 2nd Edition

Shifting the Center is an anthology that explores the issues and diversity of contemporary families by presenting a balanced coverage of racial and ethnic variation, and integrating a diversity of family arrangements and processes.

Preface

PART I. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF FAMILIES

Diana Gittins, The Family in Question: What Is the Family?

Maxine Baca Zinn, Feminist Rethinking from Racial-Ethnic Families

Kath Weston, Exiles from Kinship

Arlene Skolnick, Embattled Paradise: The American Family in an Age of Uncertainty

PART II. HISTORICAL CHANGES AND FAMILY VARIATIONS

* Stephanie Coontz, Historical Perspectives on Family Diversity

Niara Sudarkasa, Interpreting the African Heritage in Afro- American Family Organization

Richard Griswold del Castillo, La Familia: Family Cohesion Among Mexican American Families in the Urban Southwest, 1848-1900.

* Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Split Household, Small Producer, and Dual Wage Earner: An Analysis of Chinese American Family Strategies

PART III. COURTSHIP, DATING, AND POWER

* Martin King Whyte, Choosing Mates—The American Way

* Alfredo Corchado, Men Are Gone, Off to U.S., But Courtship Continues

Letitia Anne Peplau and Susan Miller Campbell, The Balance of Power in Dating

PART IV. COHABITATION, MARRIAGE, AND PARTNERSHIP

Larry Bumpass, James A. Sweet, and Andrew Cherlin, The Role of Cohabitation in Declining Rates of Marriage

* Colleen Fong and Judy Yung, In Search of the Right Spouse: Interracial Marriage Among Chinese and Japanese Americans

Judith Stacey, Gay and Lesbian Families Are Here

Pepper Schwartz, Peer Marriage

PART V. PARENTS AND CHILDREN

Parents and Parenting

* Maris A. Vinovskis, Historical Perspectives on Parent-Child Interactions

* Judith N. Lasker and Susan Borg, In Search of Parenthood: Coping with Infertility and High-Tech Conception

* Stephen D. Sugarman, Single-Parent Families

Children and Childhood

* Frances Goldscheider and Linda J. Waite, Children’s Share in Household Tasks

* Paul R. Amato, Life-Span Adjustment of Children to Their Parent’s Divorce

PART VI. MOTHERHOOD AND FATHERHOOD

Motherhood

Patricia Hill Collins, Shifting the Center: Race, Class, and Feminist Theorizing about Motherhood

* Sharon Hays, The Mommy Wars: Ambivalence, Ideological Work, and the Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood

Fatherhood

Kathleen Gerson, Dilemmas of Involved Fatherhood

* Michael Shernoff, Gay Men Choosing to Be Fathers

PART VII. DIVORCE, REMARRIAGE, AND BLENDED FAMILIES

Constance Ahrons, What Divorce Is and Is Not: Transcending the Myths

Terry Arendell, The Social Self as Gendered: A Masculinist Discourse of Divorce

* Nathalie Friedman, Divorced Parents and the Jewish Community

Andrew J. Cherlin and Frank Furstenberg, Jr., Stepfamilies in the United States: A Reconsideration

PART VIII. FAMILIES AND VIOLENCE

* Demie Kurz, Old Problems and New Directions in the Study of Violence Against Women

* Staya P. Krishnan, Malahat Baig-Amin, et al, Lifting the Veil of Secrecy: Domestic Violence Against South Asian Women in the United States

Claire M. Renzetti, Toward a Better Understanding of Lesbian Battering

* Jill Korbin, Georgia J. Anetzberger, and J. Kevin Eckert, Elder Abuse and Child Abuse: A Consideration of Similarities and Differences in Intergenerational Family Violence

PART IX. AGING AND INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

* Andrew Cherlin and Frank Furstenberg, Jr., The Modernization of Grandparenthood

* Kathleen S. Bahr, The Strengths of Apache Grandmothers: Observations on Commitment, Culture, and Caretaking

Sandra J. Boyd and Judith Treas, Family Care of the Frail Elderly: A New Look “Women in the Middle”

PART X. FAMILIES AND WORK

Arlie Hochschild, The Emotional Geography of Work and Family Life

Lillian B. Rubin, “When You Get Laid Off, It’s Like You Lose a Part of Yourself”

Scott Coltrane, Changing Patterns of Family Work: Chicano Men and Housework

* Micaela di Leonardo, The Female World of Cards and Holidays: Women, Families, and the Work of Kinship

PART XI. FAMILIES AND POVERTY

Robert Aponte, Hispanic Families in Poverty: Diversity, Context, and Interpretation

* Randy Albelda and Chris Tilly, It’s a Family Affair: Women, Poverty, and Welfare

Jonathan Kozol, Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America

PART XII. FAMILY POLICY AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Steven K. Wisensale and Kathlyn E. Heckart, Domestic Partnerships: A Concept Paper and Policy Discussion

Kristin Luker, Dubious Conceptions: The Controversy over Teen Pregnancy

* Rita J. Simon, Adoption and the Race Factor: How Important Is It?

Rose Brewer, Race, Class, Gender and U.S. State Welfare Policy: The Nexus of Inequality for African American Families

*Indicates readings new to this edition