Modern Families: Parents and Children in New Family Forms

by Susan Golombok

Overview

Modern Families brings together research on parenting and child development in new family forms including lesbian mother families, gay father families, families headed by single mothers by choice and families created by assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF), egg donation, sperm donation, embryo donation and surrogacy. This research is examined in the context of the issues and concerns that have been raised regarding these families. The findings not only contest popular myths and assumptions about the social and psychological consequences for children of being raised in new family forms but also challenge well-established theories of child development that are founded upon the supremacy of the traditional family. It is argued that the quality of family relationships and the wider social environment are more influential in children's psychological development than are the number, gender, sexual orientation, or biological relatedness of their parents or the method of their conception.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107650251
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/09/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Susan Golombok is Director of the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Lesbian mother families; 3. 'Test-tube' baby families; 4. Donor conception families; 5. Surrogacy families; 6. Solo mother families; 7. Gay father families; 8. Conclusions.

Editorial Reviews

"This book would be most beneficial to any professional working systemically or for any professional working with more contemporary family form to better understand how that family form works in order to parent well and to be aware of where potential conflicts may arise."
The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (acamh.org)

"For years, a basic premise was that the more a family deviated from the traditional, two-parent, heterosexual family, the more the child's psychological well-being was in jeopardy. Golombok addresses a more elemental question by asking how the parenting children in new families experience actually differs from that found in traditional families. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals, [and] general readers."
Choice

"… Modern Families: Parents and Children in New Family Forms reviews the newer research focused on families created through assisted reproductive procedures or lesbian-headed and gay-headed families. The book includes well-written introduction and conclusion chapters and six chapters that review research on various family formations. For readers with a college vocabulary, [Golombok] does an excellent job of describing each study, the results and the limitations. The last chapter does a particularly good job of summarizing the findings and pulling it all together, and it should be required reading for any professionals who work with these families."
PsycCRITIQUES

"Modern Families is a landmark publication, a succinct state-of-the-art review, and is highly relevant reading for researchers in developmental psychology or family studies and for students in these fields. Policymakers, and indeed parents or want-to-be parents of children brought up in de novo or planned lesbian or gay families, will also want to read this rich and inspiring book."
Fiona Tasker and Victor Figueroa, Journal of GLBT Family Studies

From the Publisher

★ 05/01/2015
After years of speculation as to what kind of family arrangement suits kids best, Golombok (family research, Univ. of Cambridge, UK) gives readers solid evidence and data covering every kind of "new" family that's emerged over the last four decades. The author actually began her work in the mid-1970s, studying children with lesbian mothers. Now she presents solid research on "new" (avoiding the term "nontraditional") families—including IVF families, donor conception families, surrogacy, families with solo mothers or gay fathers or adoptive gay fathers, and so on. This study has worldwide scope, and it puts to rest all the murkiness and judgment surrounding the field of family studies; the world of Dick and Jane, Mother and Father, is a tiny part of "family," Golombok shows. Overall, without oversimplification, the author concludes that while the type of family doesn't matter for children's well-being and development, the quality of family life matters a great deal—family processes are more influential than family structure. The book is complemented by an excellent bibliography and a list of further reading. VERDICT A highly significant book important for all public and academic libraries.—Linda Beck, Indian Valley P.L., Telford, PA

Library Journal