Normal Family Processes: Growing Diversity and Complexity

Hardcover
678 pages
Guilford Press, 2003

This course text and practitioners’ guide has expanded our understanding of the diversity and complexity of “normal” families today. The authors describe the challenges facing contemporary families and the ways in which clinicians can promote well-being and resilience.

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Description

This course text and practitioners’ guide has expanded our understanding of the diversity and complexity of “normal” families today. The authors describe the challenges facing contemporary families and the ways in which clinicians can promote well-being and resilience. Revised and updated to reflect research advances and the changing contexts of family life, this edition covers new topics including evidence-based assessment, neurobiology, kinship care, and family rituals. The introductory section surveys emerging trends in family life; critically examines views of family normality, health, and dysfunction; and provides a strengths-based framework for clinical practice. Subsequent sections present cutting-edge research on varied family structures and sociocultural and developmental contexts, highlighting implications for assessment and intervention.

The book identifies processes that nurture and sustain strong bonds in couples; dual-earner, divorced, single-parent, and remarried families; gay and lesbian families; and adoptive and kinship care families. It discusses how families are influenced by social and economic constraints, changing gender norms, immigration experiences, and spirituality. It examines the multigenerational family life cycle and describes key family processes for coping and resilience, with attention to the normative strains of childrearing as well as major stressors such as trauma, loss, and chronic illness or disability. The final section of the volume reviews the state of the science of family assessment and probes genetic and neurobiological interactions with family processes. Shifting the focus from how families fail to how they can succeed, this book is essential reading for therapists and counselors, as well as instructors and graduate students in family therapy, psychology, social work, counseling, nursing, and related fields. It is an informative and authoritative text for graduate-level courses.

Additional information

Weight 38.9 oz
Format

Hardcover

EditorFroma Walsh
ISBN1572308168