A Survey of Recent Marriage and Family Texts

Abstract

Introduction Textbooks provide an interesting opportunity to feel the pulse of a field of study. It has even been argued that texts reflect the paradigmatic status of normal science (Kuhn, 1970). With these thoughts in mind, we have prepared a comparative review of nearly two dozen recent textbooks in the field of marriage and family studies. Our first purpose is to provide some guidance for potential users of the texts by assessing their relative strengths and deficits. In addition, we have tried to maintain a sensitivity to the sociology of science. In particular, what does an objective analysis of marriage and family textbooks indicate about the themes, trends, and issues in this field? Our methods were adapted from those used by Miller (1979). An important difference is that we have examined a larger pool of more diverse texts in the present review. Also, our analytical categories are somewhat more refined, enabling us to make judgments beyond those made in the previous survey. Finally, because the two of us have collaborated, we have been able to at least challenge and reconsider the reliability of our assessments. A surprisingly large number of new and revised texts about marriage and the family have recently appeared. Initially we had intended to survey about a dozen texts, but as 1980 began, texts started coming from everywhere. Relatively few of the newest texts have a purely sociological approach; instead, most combine social science and analyses of marriage and family patterns with a more personal, literary, and applied flavor. Many of them, understandably, seem to have been written for large enrollment undergraduate courses with a more functional or applied approach. The major criteria for including texts in the present review were that: (a) they were newly published or revised in 1978, 1979 or before press deadline in 1980; (b) they were not included in either of the most recent CS marriage and family textbook essays (Spanier and Stump, 1978; Miller, 1979); and (c) they were primarily the writing of the author(s) instead of edited anthologies. Several books which met the first two criteria were excluded because they are primarily edited collections of readings (Henslin, 1980; Phelan, 1979; Skolnick and Skolnick, 1980; Weil, 1979). In contrast to Miller's (1979) earlier review, all texts which met the above criteria were included, regardless of whether or not they were deliberately sociological and regardless of whether or not they treated both marriage and the family. As a result, the final set of 23 texts included in the present review are extremely diverse. Some are mostly functional or applied while others are highly analytic; some focus exclusively on marriage, while others feature a broader coverage of both marriage and the family. More than half (13) of the texts reviewed are second or later editions, suggesting some degree of marketing success in earlier editions. That 10 new texts have been published in a year and a half suggests the broad demand for course-related materials in marriage and family life. To assist us in reviewing each text objectively and systematically, a three-page abstracting or inventorying form was developed. The first page was used to code the content of each text into approximately 30 categories. The content analysis was done by chapter number and also by the number of pages devoted to each topic. Doublecoding in this way helped overcome the problem that some texts have many shorter chapters and others have fewer but longer