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Marriages, Families, and Relationships: Making Choices in a Diverse Society, 15th Edition

Mary Ann Lamanna, Agnes Riedmann, Susan D. Stewart

  • Copyright 2025
  • {{checkPublicationMessage('Published', '2024-10-29T00:00:00+0000')}}
Starting At $84.95 See pricing and ISBN options
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Marriages, Families, and Relationships: Making Choices in a Diverse Society 15th Edition by Mary Ann Lamanna/Agnes Riedmann/Susan D. Stewart
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Overview

Lamanna/Riedmann/Stewart's bestselling MARRIAGES, FAMILIES, AND RELATIONSHIPS: MAKING CHOICES IN A DIVERSE SOCIETY, 15th Edition, combines a rigorous scholarly and applied approach with a theme especially relevant to today's dynamic global environment: making choices in a diverse society. Thoroughly revised and updated with the latest data and research, the text delivers an engaging narrative that offers insightful perspectives on the diversity based on race and ethnicity, gender, family forms and sexual orientations. This balanced presentation discusses a variety of theoretical perspectives, emphasizing both social structure and the importance of individual agency, choice and decision-making. Students are encouraged to question assumptions and reconcile conflicting ideas and values as they make informed choices in their own lives. This text is also available for MindTap.

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Meet the Authors

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Mary Ann Lamanna

Mary Ann Lamanna is Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her research and teaching interests include family, reproduction, and gender and law. Other research has concerned the sociology of literature -- specifically "novels of terrorism" -- and a sociological analysis of Marcel Proust's novel IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME. In addition to numerous articles in law, sociology and medical humanities journals, Dr. Lamanna is the author of EMILE DURKHEIM ON THE FAMILY (Sage, 2002) and co-author of a book on Vietnamese refugees. She received her bachelor's degree Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University (St. Louis) in political science, her master's degree in sociology (minor in psychology) from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her doctorate in sociology from the University of Notre Dame.

Agnes Riedmann

Agnes Riedmann is Professor of Sociology at California State University, Stanislaus. Her professional areas of interest are theory, family and the sociology of body image. Dr. Riedmann spent the 2008-09 academic year as a Fulbright Professor at the Graduate School for Social Research, affiliated with the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, where she taught courses in family, social policy and globalization. She is author of SCIENCE THAT COLONIZES: A CRITIQUE OF FERTILITY STUDIES IN AFRICA (Temple University Press, 1993). Dr. Riedmann attended Clarke College, Dubuque, received her bachelor's degree from Creighton University and earned her doctorate from the University of Nebraska.

Susan D. Stewart

Susan D. Stewart is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Iowa State University. Her professional areas of interest are gender, family and demography -- specifically how complex living arrangements affect the physical and emotional health of adults and children. Her research has been supported by grants from the NICHD, USDA, Joint Center for Poverty Research and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The author of BRAVE NEW STEPFAMILIES and CO-SLEEPING IN FAMILIES, Dr. Stewart has published papers on a diverse range of topics, including child and adolescent obesity, eating habits, nutrition, fertility intentions and behavior, child support and visitation, stepchild adoption and women's financial literacy. She received her doctorate in sociology from Bowling Green State University.

What's New

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  • New discussions of the many long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on families appear throughout the text, including parenting concerns and behaviors.
  • Chapter 4 features new discussion of ongoing changes to definitions of sexuality and gender roles, and the impact of decisions in recent legal cases.
  • Updates include research and data about LGBTQIA+ populations and families, as well as families of diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and immigration status.

Features

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  • Empower students to think for themselves using "As We Make Choices" features throughout the text that emphasize human agency and help students work through crucial decisions.
  • "A Closer Investigation of Diversity" features provide focused attention to instances of family diversity such as Youth Caregivers and Straight Parents and LGBTQIA+ Children.

Table of Contents

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1. Making Family Choices in a Changing Society.
2. Exploring Relationships and Families.
3. Gendered Identities and Families.
4. Our Sexual Selves.
5. Love and Choosing a Life Partner.
6. Nonmarital Lifestyles: Living Alone, Cohabiting, and Other Options.
7. Marriage: From Social Institution to Private Relationship.
8. Deciding About Parenthood.
9. Raising Children in a Diverse Society.
10. Work and Family.
11. Communication in Relationships, Marriages, and Families.
12. Power and Violence in Families.
13. Family Stress, Crisis, and Resilience.
14. Divorce and Relationship Dissolution.
15. Remarriages and Stepfamilies.
16. Aging and Multigenerational Families.

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MindTap Options

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MindTap
Each MindTap product offers the full, mobile-ready textbook combined with superior and proven learning tools at one affordable price. Students who purchase digital access can add a print option at any time when a print option is available for their course.

This Cengage solution can be seamlessly integrated into most Learning Management Systems (Blackboard, Brightspace by D2L, Canvas, Moodle, and more) but does require a different ISBN for access codes. Please work with your Cengage Learning Consultant to ensure the proper course set up and ordering information. For additional information, please visit the LMS Integration site.

Standalone Digital Access — Ultimate Value

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  • ISBN-10: 0357948599
  • ISBN-13: 9780357948590
  • RETAIL $84.95
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Textbook Only Options

Traditional eBook and Print Options

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  • ISBN-10: 0357948696
  • ISBN-13: 9780357948699
  • RETAIL $84.95

  • ISBN-10: 0357948556
  • ISBN-13: 9780357948552
  • RETAIL $204.95
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Supplements

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Cengage provides a range of supplements that are updated in coordination with the main title selection. For more information about these supplements, contact your Learning Consultant.

FOR STUDENTS

MindTap for Lamanna/Riedmann/Stewart's Marriages, Families, and Relationships: Making Choices in a Diverse Society, 1 term Instant Access

ISBN: 9780357948590
MindTap for Lamanna/Riedmann/Stewart's MARRIAGES, FAMILIES, AND RELATIONSHIPS: MAKING CHOICES IN A DIVERSE SOCIETY, 15th Edition, is the digital learning solution that powers students from memorization to mastery. It gives you complete control of your course to provide engaging content, challenge every individual and build their confidence. Empower students to accelerate their progress with MindTap. MindTap: Powered by You. MindTap gives you complete ownership of your content and learning experience. Determine what students already know and where they might need a little more practice using auto-graded Check Your Understanding and End of Chapter Quiz activities. Offer application practice with Apply Your Knowledge activities and nurture students' sociological imaginations with the What Would You Do? scenario exercises. Extend learning and encourage relevant connections to student's everyday lives through curated video content. Customize the interactive syllabi, emphasize the most important topics and add your own material or notes in the eBook.