Table of Contents

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

1 What Does it Mean to Matter?.

2 Mattering Matters.

3 Researching Mattering: An Overview.

4 Mattering and Anti-Social Behavior.

5 Mattering and Self-Destructive Behavior.

6 Inducing Mattering.

Appendix: Researching Mattering: A Scientific View.

References.

Index

About the Author

Gregory C. Elliott is Associate Professor of Sociology at Brown University. A social psychologist, his research focuses on the self and its relation to social systems. He teaches courses in social psychology, the self and society, and methods and statistics. He is a member of the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association. He has also been a Consultant for the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. He has published numerous articles on mattering and the self in leading social psychology journals such as Social Psychology Quarterly and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Reviews

"I enjoyed reading Family Matters and the first research findings drawn from a large sample. The chapters summarizing what mattering is and how it motivates behavior provide a nice overview for uninitiated readers...this book helps highlight a construct that may be important for family researchers and hopefully will help encourage others to consider engaging in research to fill in the many gaps in our knowledge about mattering." (Journal of Family Theory & Review, Autumn 2010) "This book is recommended for social psychologists, sociologists, psychologists, and social workers. I found it thought provoking and would like to see items on mattering added to large-scale surveys. Readers are likely to think of instances of how not mattering has mattered in their own lives." (International Journal of Sociology of the family, Autumn 2010) "The book is clear, provocative, and well documented." (CHOICE, February 2010)