The Family Dynamic: Canadian Perspectives provides a comprehensive, down-to-earth, overview of the constellations of family forms in Canada in the twenty-first century. It broadens students’ understanding of the pluralism of family forms in Canada by including lived experiences in the form of first-person narratives at the beginning of every chapter and real case studies at the end of each chapter--helping future human service workers, social workers, early childhood educators, child and youth care workers, and sociologists understand the wide range of family issues with which they will come into contact. Uniquely, this text paints a vivid picture of family life in this moment in time through comprehensible, straightforward, conversational language that captures students’ imaginations as they explore family forms beyond their own.

Part One: The Family
Chapter 1: What Is a Family?
Chapter 2: History, Culture, and Canadian Families

Part Two: The Couple Relationship: Merging Differences
Chapter 3: Getting Together
Chapter 4: Wedding Bells … or Not

Part Three: The Expanding Family
Chapter 5: Children—Yes or No?
Chapter 6: Bringing Up Baby

Part Four: The Middle Years of the Family
Chapter 7: The Middle Years of the Family and the Not-So-Empty Nest
Chapter 8: Grey Power and the Sunset Years

Part Five: Changes in the Family
Chapter 9: The Lone-Parent Family—The Future Majority?
Chapter 10: Coming Apart—The Divorce Experience
Chapter 11: The Second Time Around
Chapter 12: The Family, Work, and Caregiving

Part Six: Problems in the Family
Chapter 13: The Family Beleaguered—When Problems Come
Chapter 14: Home Dangerous Home—Violence in the Family
Chapter 15: Poverty and the Family

Part Seven: The Future of Canadian Families
Chapter 16: The Crystal Ball—Predicting the Future of the Family

The Family Dynamic: Canadian Perspectives provides a comprehensive, down-to-earth, overview of the constellations of family forms in Canada in the twenty-first century. It broadens students’ understanding of the pluralism of family forms in Canada by including lived experiences in the form of first-person narratives at the beginning of every chapter and real case studies at the end of each chapter--helping future human service workers, social workers, early childhood educators, child and youth care workers, and sociologists understand the wide range of family issues with which they will come into contact. Uniquely, this text paints a vivid picture of family life in this moment in time through comprehensible, straightforward, conversational language that captures students’ imaginations as they explore family forms beyond their own. Class and Personal Assignments are included in the end-of-chapter material--presenting opportunity for students to apply chapter concepts to their own lives. To encourage critical reading, the learning objectives have been reworded as questions and are tied to the chapter summaries.