The Marriage and Family Experience

THE MARRIAGE & FAMILY EXPERIENCE is a realistic look at relationships today. These experienced authors will help you see and understand the underlying issues at work in marriages, families, and all kinds of relationships. Real-life cross-cultural examples and features that encourage you to look deeper at yourself make the Tenth Edition accessible and compelling_this is a book you can relate to and one you will want to read! The book presents the latest information on adoptive parenting, childbearing patterns, gay and lesbian families, the meaning of virginity, gender roles and sexuality, communication and conflict resolution, the influence of popular culture, and working families. With thorough and compelling coverage of all kinds of today's families and relationships, the book dispels myths about gender differences and gives you a realistic and comprehensive overview of the concepts and topics you'll need to succeed in your course.

Theodore Cohen is the Ella Fulton Dunham Professor of Sociology and current chairperson of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. Before coming to Ohio Wesleyan in 1984, he earned his B.A. in sociology from Brooklyn College (1977), and his M.A. (1981) and Ph.D. (1984) in sociology from Boston University. In addition to his teaching career at Ohio Wesleyan, Cohen has taught at a variety of public and private universities including Boston University, Northeastern University, Clark University, and Rowan University. Throughout these different educational contexts, he has found that enthusiasm, humor and determination to engage students to apply sociological concepts to their own lives, has worked with equal effectiveness whether in classes of nine or ninety. He brings those same objectives to his writing. In 1990, Dr. Cohen received The Sherwood Dodge Shankland Award for the Encouragement of Teachers, one of two awards Ohio Wesleyan gives for teaching excellence. In addition to being the co-author of The Marriage and Family Experience since its eighth edition, Cohen is also the editor of a text-reader on men and gender, Men & Masculinity: A Text Reader (Wadsworth 2001). He has also published articles and book chapters on aspects of men's lives, especially their transitions to marriage and fatherhood, and on the family and work lives of a sample of nontraditional couples (some in which men were caregivers and women wage-earners and some in which spouses worked different or unusual shifts). Cohen's own family experiences include many of the issues covered and addressed in this text. He has been married, widowed, in a long distance relationship, remarried, separated, a father, stepfather, and caregiver. He currently lives in central Ohio, where, in addition to his children, his passions include the music of Tom Waits, New York Yankees baseball, Seinfeld reruns and Modern Family.