Handbook of Marriage and the Family

The third edition of Handbook of Marriage and the Family describes, analyzes, synthesizes, and critiques the current research and theory about family relationships, family structural variations, and the role of families in society. This updated Handbook provides the most comprehensive state-of-the art assessment of the existing knowledge of family life, with particular attention to variations due to gender, socioeconomic, race, ethnic, cultural, and life-style diversity. The Handbook also aims to provide the best synthesis of our existing scholarship on families that will be a primary source for scholars and professionals but also serve as the primary graduate text for graduate courses on family relationships and the roles of families in society. In addition, the involvement of chapter authors from a variety of fields including family psychology, family sociology, child development, family studies, public health, and family therapy, gives the Handbook a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary framework.

Gary W. Peterson is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Studies and Social Work at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. His areas of research and scholarly expertise are adolescent development within the context of families, parent-child relationships, and family theory. Currently, he is pursuing these areas of inquiry cross-culturally within samples of adolescents from the Peoples’ Republic of China, Russia, India, Kenya, Mexico, Chile, and the U.S. Previous research areas have included public health issues in populations of Mexican-American youth as well as influences on the life plans of low-income, rural youth from Appalachian areas of the U.S. He is a co-editor of the Handbook of Marriage and the Family (2nd Ed.) and Adolescents in Families, Parent-Youth Relations: Cultural And Cross-cultural Perspectives, and Pioneering Paths in the Study of Families: The Lives and Careers of Family Scholars. Dr. Peterson is former editor of the journal Marriage and Family Review and was named a Fellow of the National Council on Family Relations in 2006. Research and scholarly articles have appeared in such publications as Journal of Marriage and the Family, Family Relations, Journal of Adolescent Research, Journal of Research on Adolescence, Youth and Society, Family Process, Sociological Inquiry, and Family Issues. Dr. Peterson is Editor or Co-Editor of books on fatherhood, cross-national parent-child relations, and family theory. He is a chapter contributor to several edited collections on such topics as parental stress, gender in the parent-child relationship, a life course perspective on parent-child relationships, and prevention programs for parent-child/parent-adolescent relationships. Dr. Peterson has been a guest editor for special issues of several research journals and has been a member of the Board of Directors for the National Council on Family Relations. Kevin R. Bush is an Associate Professor of Family Studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His research interests focus on child and adolescent development in the contexts of family and culture including academic achievement, self-concept, self-efficacy, as well as internalizing and externalizing issues. He has conducted studies with US (Appalachian, African American, Asian American, European American and Latino) and international (e.g., Chinese, Columbian, Mexican, South Korean, and Russian) samples of children, adolescents and parents. His work has been published in several scholarly journals, including Child Development, Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Adolescent Research, Journal of Family Psychology, Sociological Inquiry, Journal of Family Economic Issues, Marriage and Family Review, and Psychology in the Schools. Dr. Bush also has contributed several chapters to edited collections on such topics as adaptation among immigrant families, family influences on childhood development, parenting and adolescents, family relationships and gender roles in Appalachia, as well as gender and the parent-child relationship.