Families in the Urban Environment: Understanding Resilience introduces students to some of the challenges that children and families face in urban environments. The text also highlights resilience as a process and discusses the family as a social unit.

The book is divided into five parts: Theories of Resilience, Family in the United States, Marriage and Partnership, Family and Work Life, and Urban Factors. Specific topics explored throughout the text include social capital and health; resilience to discrimination stress across ethnic identity stages of development; familial dynamics in immigrant families; and resilience as it relates to the survivors of partner and martial violence. The books also explores familial budgets; the feminist reorganization of family; child well-being in middle-class environments; educating the homeless and other highly mobile students; protective factors for low-income youth; and more.

Families in the Urban Environment presents students with a comprehensive look into the myriad challenges that urban families face today. The book is ideal for undergraduate courses in family systems, social work, or child development.