Adrian Wilson provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of the family.

The book opens with a chapter on family structure, looking at the family historically and in cross-cultural perspective.

Following this is a review first of theoretical approaches to the family, including functionalist, feminist, Marxist and radical criticism, and second, how the family is studied sociologically.

Chapters 4 and 5 look at the changing British family and British families today, and the concluding chapters examine family problems, for example, divorce, violence, one-parent families, and the family and the state.