When it comes to creating and maintaining families, are the rules pretty strict or do many roads lead to Rome? What causes some families - and children in particular - to flourish, while others drift into dysfunction and insecurity? Are there characteristics common to most successful families - and certain patterns discernible in failing ones?
This, the opening sentence of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, has inspired historians and social scientists to critically analyze paths to success versus paths to failure in a variety of societal units. If certain features of good families can be generalized, how should we go about universalizing them? Who or what should assist families in eradicating "maladaptive" behaviors or methods?
