Changing Families, Changing Responsibilities: Family Obligations Following Divorce and Remarriage. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Fall, 1999

GANONG, Lawrence H., & COLEMAN, Marilyn. Changing Families, Changing Responsibilities: Family Obligations Following Divorce and Remarriage. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999. 2O3pp. $45.00 (h).

The high incidence of divorce and remarriage means that the structure of American families is changing. These changes present unprecedented challenges to professionals who work with families, to policymakers, and of course to the family members who experience these transitions. This book explores one important aspect of the stepfamily--the responsibilities of family members to one another after divorce and remarriage. The authors draw extensively on their programmatic research exploring normative beliefs regarding postdivorce intergenerational family obligations to paint a picture of this shifting landscape. Chapters include: who is responsible for dependent family members?; parental financial support of children following divorce; mom's house? dad's house? parents' responsibility to assume physical custody of children; older family members' financial obligations to younger generations; adults' obligations to parents, in-laws, and stepparents--a review of the literature; (step)filial obligations; responsibili ties to elders after the divorce of the middle generation; building models of intergenerational obligations; and vignettes used in the family obligations studies.