Kevin Bush

• PhD
• Professor at Miami University

Learn how contemporary families respond to and handle common stressful life circumstances. Integrating research, theory, and applications, Families & Change: Coping With Stressful Events and Transitions, Fifth Edition offers students an in-depth understanding of family change. Each chapter of this bestselling text presents the latest scholarship fr...

Previous literature demonstrates that parental support and parental monitoring play an essential role in adolescents’ social competence and their self-esteem. In addition, the relationship between self-esteem and adolescents’ social initiative has been examined. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism of the associations among paren...

This chapter reviews scholarly literature and theory related to parenting and parent-child/adolescent relationships in Chile. Consistent with most other societies, families play an important role in Chilean society, a fundamental aspect of which is the parent-child relationship. This chapter begins with a brief overview of the country itself and an...

The purpose of this chapter is to review and summarize recent research related to the impact of COVID-19 on parent-child and parent-adolescent relationships globally, focused mainly on findings from non-Western countries. The evidence reviewed supports the conclusions that a multitude of factors were involved in the negative impact that the COVID-1...

Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” theory—which hypothesized that if human lower level “deficiency needs” were not met, higher level “growth needs” would be impaired—has received substantial theoretical attention. However, less attention has been given to whether the theory is supported by empirical data in school-aged youth from the USA. In this paper,...

Adolescence is an important development period for humans across the globe. Biologically this time period is full of physical, hormonal, and cognitive changes. The social contexts in which adolescents are embedded (e.g., racial/ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, and political) shape the social experiences (parent–adolescent relationship, school exper...

This entry provides an overview of adolescence with individualist cultures, focusing primarily on the concept of autonomy and relatedness and how these outcomes and their associated socialization goals and practices vary both between and within individualistic cultures.

With 20 percent of children in the US living in poverty, and considering the potential impact of poverty on academic achievement and other developmental outcomes, children living in poverty are at great risk. The purpose of this study was to assess whether participants in a program designed to meet basic needs (the Success Program) experienced sign...

Afro-Caribbean immigrants are a growing and marginalized population in the U.S. Although they have much in common with African Americans and Latino immigrants, they are a unique and diverse group that is often misunderstood and understudied. This exploratory study highlights the struggles of these mothers as they navigate contrasting parenting valu...

We begin this text (Chapter 1) with an updated overview of the research on family problems, stressors, change, and coping. The nature and origin of the problems and changes facing families today are discussed, noting that while many of today’s problems are not new, the degree of change in American society is unprecedented. The history of systematic...

This chapter focuses on several family and social–psychological processes (i.e., parent behaviors, parent–adolescent conflict, and interparental or marital conflict) that predict the development of adolescent social competence and problem behavior. An emphasis of this chapter is the importance of cultural values and family structural variation (i.e...

The present research examined the relationship between supportive and controlling dimensions of parenting behaviors and Chinese adolescent outcomes (school adjustment and problem behavior). Researchers collected self-report data from 588 adolescents in Hangzhou, China. Results showed that the factor structure for the Parent Behavior Measure in the...

This chapter reviews scholarly literature and theory related to parenting and parent-child/adolescent relationships in Chile. Consistent with most other societies, families play an important role in Chilean society, a fundamental aspect of which is the parent-child relationship. This chapter begins with a brief overview of the country itself and th...

Cross-sectional data from 589 Chinese adolescents were used to investigate whether parenting behaviors are directly or indirectly (through self-esteem and school adjustment difficulties) associated with adolescent depressive symptoms and problem behavior. Structural equation modeling results showed that school adjustment difficulties fully mediated...

Educators are increasingly recognising the importance of improving students’ mathematics achievement. Much of the current research focuses on the impact of instructional variables on mathematics achievement. The goal of this study was to examine the influence of less researched variables – family and student factors. Participants were 747 economica...

Although nuclear families decreased substantially in the USA during the latter half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century, families with a mother,father, and biologically related children remain a common setting for socializing the young (Carlson, McLanahan,&England, 2004; Cherlin, 2005; Teachman, Tedrow, & Kim,...

Educators are increasingly recognising the importance of improving students’ mathematics achievement. Much of the current research focuses on the impact of instructional variables on mathematics achievement. The goal of this study was to examine the influence of less researched variables – family and student factors. Participants were 747 economica...

Children and adolescents worldwide experience a variety of adversities that have the potential to disrupt typical development. However, some of these individuals exhibit resilience, evidencing normal development in the face of adversity. Here we review research on these constructs of risk, adversity, and resilience; synthesize international researc...

This study evaluated the factor structure of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) with a diverse sample of 1,248 European American, Latino, Armenian, and Iranian adolescents. Adolescents completed the 10-item RSES during school as part of a larger study on parental influences and academic outcomes. Findings suggested that method effects in the RS...

The purpose of the present study was to examine how dimensions of socialization practice and relationship quality may function to manage or increase parent-adolescent conflict. Of particular concern was to examine the comparative efficacy of potential predictors of parent-adolescent conflict across three cultural groups consisting of samples from M...

Families often serve as the most important social contexts for child development, with their most significant quality being complex relationships in which socialization influence flows in more than one direction. Children are not just passive social beings who are shaped by their surrounding environment. Instead, they are active agents who help res...

This chapter is a review and conceptual analysis of the extent to which aspects of the parent–adolescent relationship can both vary and share qualities across cultures. Parent–adolescent relationships in both the United States and Mexico are used as examples to illustrate how cultural variations exist within common themes across cultures. Specifica...

While there is a sizable body of literature substantiating the significance of family values such as familism for Latino families, most research has focused on Mexican families or Latinos living in the US mainland. Research is needed to examine specific factors of familism among Puerto Rican families living on the island. The principal objective of...

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...

Maslow's (1954) influential theory suggests that children's ability to be motivated by “growth needs” (e.g., academic achievement) first requires satisfaction of “deficiency needs” (e.g., safety needs, love/belonging needs). Given the vast number of children experiencing deficiency needs, a better understanding of these relationships can serve as a...

This paper presents our findings regarding the Butler County Success Program, a program designed to assist students in grades K-6 (and their families) who qualify for Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF). The program follows an holistic case management approach centered around 15 community liaisons assigned to work in one or more of the 40 partic...

This paper presents our findings regarding the Butler County Success Program, a program designed to assist students in grades K-6 (and their families) who qualify for Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF). The program follows an holistic case management approach centered around 15 community liaisons assigned to work in one or more of the 40 partic...

This study investigates the cross-cultural validity of a 10-item parental autonomy granting measure with samples of adolescents from the United States, China, Mexico, and India. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis suggested a moderately high degree of cross-cultural equivalence, particularly for the United States and China. Invariance in item l...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the perception of parenting behaviors (positive induction, monitoring, autonomy granting, punitiveness, and permissiveness) on adolescent achievement orientation and self-efficacy among samples of Chilean and Ecuadorian adolescents. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that par...

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the social networks of Appalachian adolescents to understand socialization strategies and goals. A total of 46 interviews were conducted with five families (mothers, fathers, and adolescents) and 11 socialization agents the families identified as exerting significant influence in the lives of the...

This study examined the extent to which adolescents’behavioral autonomy was predicted by several aspects of the parent-youth relationship that are encompassed by the general constructs connectedness and restrictiveness. Both of these general relationship constructs are composed of more specific social-psychological predictors consisting of parental...

This study sought to determine how several child-rearing behaviors within the Chinese parent-adolescent relationship were predictive of youthful self-esteem through either collectivistic or individualistic socialization approaches. Theoretically based relationships were tested with structural equation modeling to examine whether dimensions of paren...

The purpose of this study was to assess the construct validity of adolescent-report parenting behavior measures (primarily derived from the Parental Behavior Measure) in a sample of 480 adolescents from Beijing, China. Results suggest that maternal support, monitoring, and autonomy granting were valid measures when assessing maternal socialization...

The influences of adolescents' perceptions of parental behaviors and authority on the development of their self-esteem and sense of familism were examined among 534 youth living in Mexico. Results of hierarchical regression analyses suggest that boys' perceptions of their mothers and fathers were similar in relation to their development of self-est...

There have been very few studies examining family and youth development in Mainland China (Bush, 2000a; Bush, Peterson, Cobas, & Supple, 2002). The small body of literature that does exist from the People’s Republic of China includes studies utilizing convenience sampling, samples of college students, and retrospective reports of adults. Therefore,...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between adolescent functioning (i.e., self-esteem and academic achievement) and parental support, behavioral control, and psychological control in European American and African American adolescents. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that supportive behaviors of African American mot...

The extent to which current theories on family-related factors associated with children's depression and conduct problems are applicable to Mexican American children was examined among demographically comparable samples of low-income Mexican American (English and Spanish speaking) and Euro-American mothers and children. There were ethnic difference...

To understand cross-cultural differences and similarities in the social contexts for adolescent development, 201 American and 502 Chinese 11th graders were surveyed about a non-parental adult who had played an important role in their lives (VIPs). Results showed that, compared to adolescents' VIPs in the United States, their Chinese counterparts we...

Adolescents currently grow up in a great diversity of family circumstances, one of which is the domestic structure referred to as the nuclear family. Regardless of specific structural characteristics, however, families must prepare adolescents psychologically and socially for greater autonomy from parents and the transition to adulthood (Grotevant,...

Parents’ child–rearing behaviors have been identified as major sources of influence on the self–esteem of adolescents from Western societies and Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. The pattern of relationships found in samples of Hong Kong adolescents has been similar to the pattern found among samples of U.S. adolescents, but contrary to what might...

This study examined the relationship between aspects of the parenting environment and children's conduct problems and anxious symptoms among socioeconomically comparable samples of African American and European American mothers and their kindergarten children. Ethnic differences in parenting may lead to differences in the relationship between paren...

This study examined the impact of relationship connectedness (i.e., conformity to parents) and relationship separatedness (i.e., parental autonomy granting) on the self-esteem of mainland Chinese and European-American adolescents. The findings indicate that adolescent autonomy from parents is a consistent positive predictor of adolescent self-estee...

Thesis (M.S.)--Arizona State University, 1997. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [88]-99).