For one semester/quarter courses on Marriage and Families, Sociology of the Family, Human Development or Family Studies. By introducing the themes of “Changes, Choices and Constraints” when presenting the basic concepts, theory, research and statistics about marriages and families, Benokraitis discusses how contemporary changes in families and their structure impact the choices student’s actually have, and how society can constrain their marriages, families and relationships.  Through this approach, students are better able to understand what the research and statistics mean for themselves! Seeing that there was a need for a text that reflected the issues- like race and ethnicity, remarriage and stepfamilies, and sexuality, that face students and their families, Professor Benokraitis wrote Marriage and Families as a way to show students both the choices and constraints that families face in modern society.