Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at risk for having higher stress and lower marital quality than other parents. Survey data regarding respite care, marital quality, and daily hassles and uplifts were obtained from 101 mother-father dyads who were together raising at least one child with ASD (total # of children = 118).…

A strongly positive opinion of spouse in middle age tends to be associated with social conformity and family integration. Mutually approving couples were more often politically moderate, homogamous in religious background, and had more interpersonal power than their children. They also had more highly integrated family structures with low conflict…

Results are presented of an intensive search of U.S. newspapers and periodicals on the joint custody of children after divorce, where both parents have continued responsibility for parenting and where the children spend part of each week, month, or year with both of the parents. Areas of concern addressed by these materials include the following:…

Examines whether the rising percentage of unmarried adults would affect the level of social support between adult children and their parents. The only major effect found was for coresidence. Neither divorced children in general nor divorced daughters or divorced single parents in particular posed a special burden to parents. (RJM)

Using longitudinal data, examined the impact of parental marital quality, divorce, and remarriage on the exchange of assistance between parents and offspring. Found that family members were able to adapt to alterations in family structure in a way that minimized the effects of changes by maintaining patterns of needed support. (RJM)

Examines hypothesis that stepfamilies experience more marital conflict than do biological families. Measured remarriage's and stepchildren's impact on marital conflict frequency. Findings suggest that remarriage and stepchildren are not necessarily associated with more frequent marital conflict and that stepchildren's effect varied depending on…

Background: It is not known if the prevalence of parental psychiatric disorders is higher in stepfather than intact families, or if parental alcoholism is differentially associated with risk for conduct disorder (CD) symptoms in stepfather families versus intact families. Method: The sample comprised 839 girls and 741 boys from 792 intact families…