Explores how couples cope with marital conflict from the early years of their relationships to the present time. Focuses on conflict management styles from face-to-face confrontation to avoidance, as well as gender and ethnicity influences on styles of coping with conflict. Implications for social work practice are discussed. (Author/MKA)

Examined attitudes toward marital exclusivity, which includes nonsexual extramarital relationships, among female college students (N=379). The diversity of attitudes reported appeared to indicate a great potential for marital conflict over the issue of exclusivity. Implications for work with clients in marital therapy are explored. (Author/NB)

Results of a statistical analysis of a study of battered wives in shelters indicated that the wives' economic dependence on their husbands almost always ensured that they would return to their husbands and that respondents who considered the shelters useful had a higher probability of returning to their husbands. (Author)

The chronically reconstituting family is a normal and appropriate variation to the traditional pattern. Those processes characteristic of the chronically reconstituting family entail significant psychological and social consequences. Careful evaluation of those norms and values that contribute to this process must be the concern of all clinicians.…