ABSTRACT
Arguably the most central and important in-stitution in their lives, the family has often been presented in popular films, stage dra-mas, television programs, novels, and studies by historians and social scientists as the prin-cipal means of understanding Italian Ameri-cans. In the mass media, while frequently de-picted as a contentious experience for its members, the Italian American family is also projected as a warm and supportive sanctu-ary of individual life and group experience that provides the final and dependable refuge against everything that is external and threatening to its members. This simple stereotype of popular culture stands sharply in contrast to how scholarly research has presented the complex realities of family life among Italian Americans.
