This handbook provides a global perspective on contemporary demographic theories and studies of marriage and the family. Inside, readers will find a comprehensive analysis that enables demographic comparison between and across international borders. Coverage is centered around four main sections that present a history of marriage and the family, detail relevant data and measurement concerns, examine global marriage practices, analyze interactions of such demographic characteristics as age, sex, and race with marriage and the family, and consider public policy, contemporary trends, and future directions. In addition, the book includes research on current social issues such as alternative family structures, cohabitation, divorce, boomerang children, and adoption. The family is universal but extremely varied in form and function. This handbook provides students, researchers, and policymakers with an all-inclusive, international demographic analysis that fully investigates the diverse nature of the modern family.

This is the third in an essential series of Springer handbooks that explore key aspects of the nexus between demography and social science. With an inclusive international perspective, and founded on the principles of social demography, this handbook shows how the rural population, which recently dropped below 50 per cent of the world total, remains a vital segment of society living in proximity to much-needed developmental and amenity resources. The rich diversity of rural areas shapes the capacity of resident communities to address far-reaching social, environmental and economic challenges. Some will survive, become sustainable and even thrive, while others will suffer rapid depopulation. This handbook demonstrates how these future development trajectories will vary according to local characteristics including, but not limited to, population composition. The growing complexity of rural society is in part a product of significant international variations in population trends, making this comparative and comprehensive study of rural demography all the more relevant. Collating the latest research on international rural demography, the handbook will be an invaluable aid to policy makers as they try to understand how demographic dynamics depend on the economic, social and environmental characteristics of rural areas. It will also aid researchers assessing the unique factors at play in the rural context and endeavoring to produce meaningful results that will advance policy and scholarship. Finally, the handbook is an ideal text for graduate students in a spread of disciplines from sociology to international development.

Families are the cornerstone of Chinese society, whether in mainland China, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Malaysia, or in the Chinese diaspora the world over. Handbook of the Chinese Family provides an overview of economics, politics, race, ethnicity, and culture within and external to the Chinese family as a social institution. While simultaneously evaluating its own methodological tools, this book will set current knowledge in the context of what has been previously studied as well as future research directions. It will examine inter-family relationships and politics as well as childrearing, education, and family economics to provide a rounded and in-depth view.

The third edition of Handbook of Marriage and the Family describes, analyzes, synthesizes, and critiques the current research and theory about family relationships, family structural variations, and the role of families in society. This updated Handbook provides the most comprehensive state-of-the art assessment of the existing knowledge of family life, with particular attention to variations due to gender, socioeconomic, race, ethnic, cultural, and life-style diversity. The Handbook also aims to provide the best synthesis of our existing scholarship on families that will be a primary source for scholars and professionals but also serve as the primary graduate text for graduate courses on family relationships and the roles of families in society. In addition, the involvement of chapter authors from a variety of fields including family psychology, family sociology, child development, family studies, public health, and family therapy, gives the Handbook a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary framework.

The International Handbook of Population Aging examines research on a wide array of the profound implications of population aging. It demonstrates how the world is changing through population aging, and how demography is changing in response to it.

This comprehensive handbook provides an overview and update of the issues, theories, processes, and applications of the social science of population studies. The volume's 30 chapters cover the full range of conceptual, empirical, disciplinary, and applied approaches to the study of demographic phenomena. This book is the first effort to assess the entire field since Hauser and Duncan's 1959 classic, The Study of Population. The chapter authors are among the leading contributors to demographic scholarship over the past four decades. They represent a variety of disciplines and theoretical perspectives as well as interests in both basic and applied research.

Written by contributors from around the world, The International Handbook of Stepfamilies: Policy and Practice in Legal, Research, and Clinical Environments is a collection of research, legal, and clinical recommendations that fills a growing need for complex, re-formed families. Using the information in this book, which includes contemporary research and its implications, you will be able to consider stepfamilies in an international context. Understand the issues that clinicians face when they work with stepfamilies, both before and after formation, and gain more knowledge about this topic as the rates of family reformation increase.