Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Video Links

• MTV’s 16 and Pregnant Season 2 (Full episode) 
  This reality program follows teens who have become pregnant. Jenelle, sixteen, 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.

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 exercises 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.
   
• 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? 
   
• Parental Leave: The Swedes Are The Most Generous  
  Consideration of parental leave policies, with special focus on those in Sweden.

Web Resources

Professional Resources

• Family Section 
  Sociologists who study family issues affiliate with the American Sociological Association (ASA) Family Section. 
   
• The National Council on Family Relations 
  The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) provides a forum for family researchers, educators, and practitioners to share in the development and dissemination of knowledge about families and family relationships, establishes professional standards, and works to promote family well-being. The NCFR publishes two scholarly journals - Journal of Marriage and Family and Family Relations [self-description].

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 
  One of the most comprehensive and important sociological studies of the family is the National Survey of Families and Households (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

There are many opinions about the definition of “family” and “family values,” including those of the following groups.

• Alternative Family Matters 
  Alternative Family Matters was created to assist lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBTs) through the complex process of having children and to help medical practices and community institutions better understand and serve LGBT-headed families [self-characterization].
   
• Family Research Council 
  Family Research Council’s primary reason for existence is to reaffirm and promote nationally, and particularly in Washington, D.C., the traditional family and the Judeo-Christian principles upon which it is built [self-characterization].
   
• Father’s Rights Foundation 
  Father’s Rights Foundation: A Page Dedicated to the Fight for Fathers Rights, That Kids Need Dads Too [self-characterization].
   
• Focus on the Family 
  Focus on the Family’s mission is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in disseminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible, and, specifically, to accomplish that objective by helping to preserve traditional values and the institution of the family [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 
  The Council on Contemporary Families (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 
  The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is a global research institute with headquarters in Washington, D.C., 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.