The United States shows striking racial and ethnic differences in marriage patterns. Compared to both white and Hispanic women, black women marry later in life, are less likely to marry at all, and have higher rates of marital instability. Kelly Raley, Megan Sweeney, and Danielle Wondra begin by reviewing common explanations for these differences,…

This study examines main effect and interactive models of the relations between marital conflict, divorce, and parent-adult child relationships and gender differences in these relations. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of a community sample (N = 585). Parental marital conflict and divorce were measured from age 5 through age 17 years.…

The literature on interracial families has examined social stigmas attached to interracial relationships but has not thoroughly documented whether crossing racial boundaries increases the risk of divorce. Using the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (Cycle VI), we compare the likelihood of divorce for interracial couples to that of same-race…

In this article, I use data on women (N= 655) from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to examine the correlates of second marital dissolution. I update the limited number of previous studies on this topic by focusing on the relationships between divorce and the complex life course patterns that characterize respondents in second marriages.…

Since January 1999, all parents in Norway with children aged 1 to 3 years who do not attend publicly subsidized day care are eligible for "cash-for-care" (CFC). One important purpose of the reform is to enable parents to spend more time with their children. We analyze whether the CFC reform has affected marital stability, using…

The evidence that the birth of a child with a disability leads to divorce or separation is equivocal, with the majority of recent research suggesting that such a birth and childrearing may be stressful, but not necessarily toxic, to the caregiver relationship. Such research has been limited by small sample sizes and nonrepresentative samples and…

We used data from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households to study high- and low-distress marriages that end in divorce. A cluster analysis of 509 couples who divorced between waves revealed that about half were in high-distress relationships and the rest in low-distress relationships. These 2 groups were not artifacts of…

Environmental or genetic influences, or both could account for the increased risk of divorce among the offspring of separated parents. Previous studies have used covariates to statistically control for confounds, but the present research is the first genetically informed study of the topic. The investigation used the Children of Twins Design with…

We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study to estimate how parents' union dissolution influences changes in adolescents' mathematics course work gains, overall grade point average, and course failure rates during a window of approximately 1 year (N = 2,629). A…

We used adopted and biological children from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households to study the links between parents' marital conflict, divorce and children's behavior problems. The standard family environment model assumes that marital conflict and divorce increase the risk of children's behavior problems. The passive…

"Your Shout Too!" reports on a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children survey of the views of 141 children and young people involved in private law court proceedings following the separation of their parents. All of the children who responded had either been the subject of a Welfare Report prepared under the provisions…

This article delineates and assesses the evidence for four perspectives that have guided previous research on the relationship between wives economic resources and marital stability. Hypotheses from these perspectives were tested using event history methods and 1980-1997 panel data for 1,704 individuals from the Marital Instability Over the Life…

This study employed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the consequences of marital disruption for youth prospectively. Using a diverse sample of 6,416 youth, we examined pre- and postdisruption group differences among youth in subsequently disrupting and continuously intact homes. We also examined the extent…

A sample of ever-married women from the NLSY79 is analyzed to examine the effects of age at first marriage and gender ideology on the likelihood of experiencing marital disruption. The authors hypothesize that age at first marriage will have no effect on the likelihood of experiencing marital disruption for non-traditional women, but that there…

Reports on a group treatment model designed for individuals (N=44) in the predivorce stage of divorcing. Results indicate that the model had meaningful impact on individuals' anger, attachment, and ambivalence, suggesting that group treatment designed specifically for predivorced individuals can be effective in the early stages of divorce. (RJM)