Toward advancing conceptualizations of the spillover hypothesis, this study examined the conditions and mechanisms underlying the transmission of distress from the interparental relationship to parenting difficulties over a 2-year period in a sample of 233 mothers (M = 35.0 years) and fathers (M = 36.8 years) of kindergarten children. Findings…

This study investigates gender differences in the associations between social characteristics and men's and women's reports of which spouse initiated marital separation. Using retrospective data on 9,147 first marriages from the Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia survey (2001), we find that some social characteristics differentiated…

The Children-of-Twins design was used to test whether associations between marital conflict frequency and conduct problems can be replicated within the children of discordant twin pairs. A sample of 2,051 children (age 14-39 years) of 1,045 twins was used to estimate the genetic and environmental influences on marital conflict and determine…

To begin to understand the role that family relationships and interactions play in young gay men's decisions to avoid unsafe sexual practices, parents and sons (ages 16 to 25) in 30 families were qualitatively interviewed about issues and concerns related to HIV risk. Most of the youths reported feeling obliged to their parents to stay healthy,…

Surveyed a representative sample of 3,745 adults to measure the incidence of parental child snatching. Results showed 55 respondents, or 1.5 percent of the sample, reported recent personal involvement in a child snatching incident, suggesting a projected estimate of 459,000 to 751,000 incidents of child snatching each year. (JAC)

Research consistently shows that children exposed to interparental conflict are at-risk for experiencing psychopathology. Establishing a link, however, between interparental conflict and maladjustment is not the same as understanding "how" specific outcomes manifest. Therefore, we examined the relation of interparental conflict and appraisal with…

Although previous work has attributed the instability of African marriages to the diffusion of Western norms and values in the region, fewer attempts have been made to empirically assess how Africa's internal institutional structures, such as extended kinship ties, impact marital outcomes. Guided by rational choice and exchange theories, we argue…

Using panel data from 9,252 adolescents in the National Education Longitudinal Study, this study finds that among children who experience parents' marital disruption during late adolescence, European, Asian, and African American adolescents exhibit wider and greater maladjustment both before and after the disruption than their Hispanic American…

This study examined how children's insecure internal representations of interparental and parent-child relationships served as explanatory mechanisms in multiple pathways linking interparental conflict and parent emotional unavailability with the emotional and classroom engagement difficulties the children had in their adjustment to school. With…

Examined relationship between cohabitation and marital instability among U.S. women born between 1928 and 1957. Although cohabitation was generally associated with higher risks of marital dissolution, differential was much smaller (or reversed) in recent cohorts where cohabitation was more common. Association between cohabitation and marital…

Examined female employment-marital instability linkage using data from study of intact marriages in Bangkok, Thailand. Found that effects of employment per se and number of hours worked were class-linked and tended to be mediated by marital processes (spousal disagreements, marital problems, marital companionship or positive affect, and wife…

Examined whether greater instability of marriage begun by premarital cohabitation can be accounted for by cohabitors' greater unconventionality in family ideology. Hypothesis was largely unsupported. Family attitudes/beliefs did not account for differences in stability. Controlling for background differences, only serial cohabitation was…

Using 3 subsamples of remarried respondents (n=1,583, 971, and 926) in the first wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, this study investigates how different types of cohabitation, especially postdivorce cohabitation, affect the timing and quality of remarriage in the United States. Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis…

Marital conflict was examined as a predictor of the quality and quantity of sleep in a sample of healthy 8 to 9 year-olds. Parents and children reported on marital conflict, the quantity and quality of children's sleep were examined through an actigraph worn for 7 consecutive nights, and child sleepiness was derived from child and mother reports.…

This article uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort Mother-Child files to explore the idea that child well-being can be improved by encouraging and enhancing parental marriage. I consider how children's living arrangements, the stability of parental marriages, and changes in living arrangements are related to…