The Marriage and Family Experience

Theodore Cohen is professor emeritus at Ohio Wesleyan University, where he was the Ella Fulton Dunham Professor of Sociology in the department of Sociology and Anthropology until 2019. He also has taught at a variety of public and private universities, including Boston University, Northeastern University, Clark University, Rowan University and most recently, The College of New Jersey. Throughout these different educational contexts, he has found that enthusiasm, humor and determination to engage students to apply sociological concepts to their own lives has worked with equal effectiveness in classes of nine or 90. He brings those same objectives to his writing. In 1990, Dr. Cohen received Ohio Wesleyan’s Sherwood Dodge Shankland Award for the Encouragement of Teachers, one of two awards Ohio Wesleyan gives for teaching excellence. In addition to being the co-author of THE MARRIAGE AND FAMILY EXPERIENCE since its eighth edition, he is the editor of MEN & MASCULINITY: A TEXT READER (Wadsworth 2001). He has published articles and book chapters on aspects of men's lives, especially their transitions to marriage and fatherhood, and on the family and work lives of a sample of nontraditional couples. Dr. Cohen's own family experiences include many of the issues covered and addressed in this text. He has been married, widowed, in a long distance relationship, remarried, separated, and divorced. He and his second wife are now once again happily married and living in New Jersey. He also is a father and stepfather. He earned his B.A. in sociology from Brooklyn College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Boston University.

• 1. The Meaning of Marriage and the Family. 2. Studying Marriages and Families. 3. Variations in American Family Life. 4. Gender and Family. 5. Intimacy, Friendship, and Love. 6. Understanding Sex and Sexualities. 7. Communication, Power, and Conflict. 8. Marriages in Societal and Individual Perspective. 9. Unmarried Lives: Singlehood and Cohabitation. 10. Becoming and Being Parents. 11. Marriage, Work, and Economics. 12. Intimate Violence and Sexual Abuse. 13. Coming Apart: Separation and Divorce. 14. New Beginnings: Single-Parent Families, Remarriages, and Blended Families.