Is biological lineage a necessary precondition for being a family? In this program, ABC News anchor Ted Koppel and correspondent Robert Krulwich visit the Van Dries, of Grand Rapids. With three biological children plus eleven adoptees from the U.S. and around the world, parents Doug and Jan put that question to the test, adding language barriers and the effects of extreme poverty and abuse to the usual array of daunting parental challenges. The sociological...

Using a down-to-earth support group format-as well as a generous supply of ice cream-this video can help young people cope with situations and surroundings that often result when two families merge. The program acknowledges feelings that children can experience when their parents remarry, including resentment and hostility toward new stepsiblings and half-siblings and a loss of privacy and trust.but it provides a clear strategy for improving relationships...

A decades-long Harvard study has concluded that good relationships and close friendships are the key to lifelong health and happiness. In this NewsHour program, Ali Rogin speaks with Dr. Robert Waldinger, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the study’s director, to learn more about his team’s research and how people can nurture the relationships in their lives.

Do people with autism experience love, romantic attraction, and heartbreak the same way non-autistic people feel those emotions? This ABC News program profiles Paul DeSavino, a 36-year-old man living with the disorder who says he is amorously drawn to a female acquaintance. Interviews with Paul, his mother, and autism expert Dr. Peter Gerhardt shed light on the complexities of the subject. An additional segment entitled "My Brother's Keeper" examines...

What exactly is love? What are its biological underpinnings, and how have cultural definitions of that word, so heavily endowed with meaning, evolved? Beginning with the Sumerians and other ancient civilizations, this program seeks to understand love's social rituals and its interrelated physiological imperatives. Topics under consideration by anthropologist Helen Fisher of Rutgers University, psychoanalyst Malek Chebel, biologist Robert Francoeur,...

Looks, personality, intellect, bank account-the reasons for attraction can't be predicted. Or can they? This program investigates ways that men and women evaluate potential lovers and life partners, and shows how male and female criteria may be more similar than many think. Creating a relaxed, club-like setting in which a small group of singles meet, flirt, and discuss their goals, the program records each participant's candid responses to the interaction,...

Science tells us a lot about sex, but what can it tell us about love? This program highlights research on the neurochemistry and psychology of love, suggesting ways to improve-and even salvage-long-term relationships. Four couples undergoing various types of relationship stress are put through a battery of experiments, while a team of research scientists try to determine the physiological and neurological factors that make love last. In the most daunting...

New research points to the role that a father plays in his child's IQ development, social adaptation, and even the stability of that child's eventual marriage. This video offers a fascinating look at today's father, and what he can and does mean to his kids.

Can the American family be defined? Today's isolated nuclear families, some with unmarried or same-sex parents, challenge traditional notions. This video explores the evolution of new family types and what they mean for the future.

From prehistoric extended families to today's double-income and single-parent families, the family as an institution has undergone dramatic change. This program examines the concept of family as viewed around the world and down through time. Historians Andre Burguiere and Pieter Spierenburg; authors Beatrice Gottlieb and Helene Tremblay; Henri Leridon, of the Institute for Demographic Studies; and Egyptologist Florence Maruejol discuss family structure...