This book analyzes the effects of the energy crisis of 1973-74 and 1977 on 1440 American families in three metropolitan areas. An analytic framework was developed for interpreting the outcomes and the processes by which families responded to the crisis. This book presents a conceptual framework for tracing the interactions between large-scale events and families, and it analyses the responses of American families to the energy crisis and the impacts of their responses on other economic and social units. The analytical framework treats family adjustments to a crisis as: (1) a series of processes extending over time; and (2) changes in the performance of family tasks for its own members and for other social systems. Chapter titles indicating contents are: (1) Introduction; (2) An Analytical Model of Families and Crises; (3) The Energy Crisis Unfolds in Hartford, Mobile, and Salem; (4) 1,440 Families React; (5) Family Adjustments; (6) Attrition, Repercussions, and Energy Conservation; (7) Different Families, Different Burdens; (8) Three Years Later-Crisis II; (9) Energy Conservation and Public Policy; and (10) Focus on Families. Appendices include: (1) Survey Design and Implementation; (2) Follow-Up Mail Survey in September 1975; (3) The Validation Study; and (4) Socioeconomic Differences Among Families in Brandies Sample. (Author/MR)