Social Change and Family Policies. Key Papers, Part I. International CFR Seminar (20th, Melbourne, Australia, August 19-24, 1984).

These papers from an International Committee on Family Research (CFR) seminar explore seven themes, four of which are presented in Part 1. The first set of papers approach the question of whether the family is worth supporting and the related issue of pressures, conflicts, and expectations of family life (Theme 1). Randall Collins discusses "Social Conflict and the Place of the Family: Toward a Theory of Moral Politics." Robert A. Lewis describes "Some Changes in Men's Values, Meanings, Roles, and Attitudes Toward Marriage and Family in the USA." Helen Glezer identifies "Antecedents and Correlates of Marriage and Family Attitudes in Young Australian Men and Women." Major demographic trends affecting family policy (Theme 2) are identified by Arland Thornton and Peter McDonald, respectively, in papers on "Modernization and Family Change" and "Implications for Families of Third World Fertility Trends." Three additional papers discuss families with children and social policy approaches to family support and education (Theme 3): "Family Policy as Latter-Day Children's Policy" by Gilbert Steiner; "Divorcees, Children, and the Public" by Jan Trost; and "The Child's Use of Family Resources" by Gay Ochiltree and Paul Amato. The topic of youth policies and the family/work/education relationship (Theme 4) is particularized in Roland Eckert and Helmut Willems'"Youth Conflicts and Public Policy Challenges in Western Europe" and in Don Edgar and Frank Maas'"Adolescent Competence, Leaving Home and Changing Family Patterns." (RH)