This volume seeks to refine and extend knowledge about approaches to supporting the caregiving roles of families. The chapters in the volume describe and appraise new directions in family support. After an introduction, the two parts of the volume address "New Directions for Family Resource and Support Programs" (six chapters) and "Family Support across the Life Span and within Different Settings" (eight chapters). The chapters are: (1) "Supporting and Strengthening Family Functioning: Toward a Congruence between Principles and Practice" (Carl J. Dunst, and others); (2) "Personal Social Networks as a Focus of Support" (Moncrieff Cochran); (3) "Family Resource and Support Programs: Changes and Challenges in Human Services" (Bernice Weissbourd); (4) "Services for Children with Special Needs: Partnerships from the Beginning between Parents and Practitioners" (Eleanor Stokes Szanton); (5) "A Life-span Perspective on Care-giving" (Richard C. Birkel); (6) "Families, Policy, and Family Support Policies" (Brian L. Wilcox and Janet E. O'Keeffe); (7) "Early Family Intervention: Focussing on the Mother's Adaptation-Competence and Quality of Partnership" (Christoph M. Heinicke); (8) "The Challenges of Multiple Roles: The Interface between Work and Family when Children Are Young" (Angela Barron McBride); (9) "The Schools and Family-Oriented Prevention" (Sharon L. Kagan and Deborah M. Lonow); (10) "Social Network Intervention in Intensive Family-Based Preventive Services" (James K. Whittaker and Elizabeth M. Tracy); (11) "The Black Church and Family Support Programs" (Harriette McAdoo and Vanella Crawford); (12) "Preventing Adoption Disruption" (Richard P. Barth and Marianne Berry); (13) "How Fathers Respond When Their Youth Leave and Return Home" (Robert A. Lewis and Stephen F. Duncan); and (14) "The Oldest Old: Caregiving or Social Support?" (Sally Bould). A reference list is provided with each chapter. (BC)