ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to review research and concepts that connect our knowledge about primary partnerships and immediate families with our knowledge about extended family and social networks. We look at reciprocal influences between social networks (which include extended family) and immediate family interactions. Throughout this chapter, we will refer to primary partnerships and committed couples as a way of acknowledging that couplehood today is not limited to married couples, but includes cohabiting heterosexual and same-sex partners. When we write about the “immediate family,” we mean “parenting adult(s) and dependent children.” This allows for variation in types of parents, be they grandparents raising grandchildren, a remarried couple raising biological and stepchildren, or a heterosexual nuclear family.
