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Video Links

• My Flesh and Blood
  This documentary takes a look at the Tom family. Susan Tom is a single parent raising 11 adopted children, all who have some type of physical or mental disability. This documentary shows the struggles that this family faces as they try to navigate every day together.

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• For Parents, Happiness is a Very High Bar
  This TED talk is given by Jennifer Senior, a writer. She discusses the many books about parenting that are found on bookshelves. She questions why parents feel so stressed about raising their children and offers more achievable aims for parents.

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• MTV’s 16 and Pregnant, Season 2 (full episode)
  This reality program follows teens who have become pregnant. Jenelle, 16, is the subject of this episode. Cameras follow Jenelle as she moves from planning to be a mother to meeting (and not meeting) the demands of motherhood. Though the show sensationalizes the issue of teen pregnancy, it also highlights the issues of roles and role conflict, particularly within the context of family. 

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Audio Links

• This American Life 183: The Missing Parents Bureau
  In the first act of this program, the reporter talks with single women who are planning to get pregnant with the help of a sperm bank and finds that they all wrestle with the question of how much they want to know about the fathers of their kids—and how much they want their kids to know. The second act is a collection of letters written by a woman who signs her name as "X" and are addressed to the father of her adolescent son. X has no idea where to send the letters, but she keeps writing. The third act is the story of a girl in an acting class that includes an exercise requiring her to develop a character with a troubled past, and then a real psychologist would come in for a session of character group therapy. The girl chose to take on the character of an orphan. In fact, she remembers that everyone else in her class did too. Twenty years later, she visits her old acting teacher and discovers that for some reason, kids today don't want to be orphans. The final act is the story of two men who adopt a child and the relationship they all have with the mother. 

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• This American Life 166: Nobody’s Family Is Going to Change
  The family is one of several social institutions in our society. Host Ira Glass describes a children's book from the 1970s called Nobody's Family Is Going to Change by Louise Fitzhugh, the author of Harriet the Spy. On the surface, it sounds like a rather menacing title for a kids' book. But in fact, the story is about how kids can finally find peace if they stop hoping that their parents will ever be any different. The question is, though: Is it true? Does anyone's family ever change? 

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Web Resources

Professional Resources

• American Sociological Association/Family
  This section of the American Sociological Association’s website highlights studies that pertain to the family as well as updates conferences that pertain to the family. 
   
• The National Council on Family Relations
  The National Council on Family Relations is the premier professional association for the multidisciplinary understanding of families. There is information about conferences, studies, and resources that pertain to the family.

​Data Resources

• Administration for Children and Families
  Official government statistics on these issues is available through the Department of Health and Human Service (DHSS) Administration for Children and Families. 
   
• National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH)
  One of the most comprehensive and important sociological studies of the family is the NSFH. 
   
• Child and Family Statistics
  The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, or the Forum, is a working group of federal agencies that collect, analyze, and report data on issues related to children and families. The Forum has partners from 22 federal agencies as well as partners in private research organizations. This page contains contact information for staff from federal agencies who have expertise with NATIONAL data sets (self-characterization). 

​Other Resources

• How Does the Law Decide What Is and What Isn't a Family?
  This article from the Pacific Standard magazine highlights a parent rights dispute between two women in Massachusetts. The results of this court case could have an impact on LGBT parents who want to adopt children.
   
• A Hand-Up for Lower Income Families
  This article from Contexts (published by the American Sociological Association) examines governmental benefits that have helped lift millions of families in the United States who are struggling financially to make ends meet. This article examines how these benefits have helped these families as evidenced by studies.
   
• Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
  Uniting people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) with families, friends, and allies, PFLAG is committed to advancing equality through its mission of support, education, and advocacy.
   
• Family Research Council
  Family Research Council’s primary reason for existence is to reaffirm and promote nationally, and particularly in Washington, DC, the traditional family and the Judeo-Christian principles upon which it is built (self-characterization). 
   
• Fathers Rights Foundation
  Fathers Rights Foundation: A page dedicated to the fight for fathers’ rights, that kids need dads too (self-characterization). 
   
• The National Organization for Women
  The National Organization for Women: We organize, organize, organize to fight the right wing—whether it’s over attempts to scuttle affirmative action, cut the safety net out from under poor women and their children, or outlaw basic civil rights for lesbians and gay men (self-characterization). 
   
• The Council on Contemporary Families (CCF)
  The CCF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the national conversation about what contemporary families need and how these needs can best be met (self-characterization). 
   
• The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
  The ICRW is a global research institute with headquarters in Washington, DC, and regional offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and New Delhi, India. We also have a project office in Mumbai. ICRW is comprised of social scientists, economists, public health specialists, and demographers, all of whom are experts in gender relations. We are thought leaders driven by a passion to alleviate poverty and rectify injustice in the world. And we believe that women and girls—in collaboration with men and boys—are essential to the solutions. We know that when their quality of life improves, families are healthier and economies are stronger.