The breakdown of marriage within American society is a serious problem as evidenced by high divorce rates and numerous separations and family problems. A Marriage Values Questionnaire, developed to determine reasons for marrying and staying married and the impact of religion on marital stability, was completed by 305 subjects, ranging in age from…

This source-book on the one parent family contains two sections. The first section includes six papers dealing with motherless families, fatherless separated families, divorce and children, the crisis of widowhood in the family cycle, the unmarried mother who keeps her child, and single parent adoptions. Section II includes 750 annotations of…

This is the description of a course designed to enable the student to develop realistic expectations of the marriage commitment in terms of his personal values and goals. Students analyze typical marital adjustment, examine possible courses of action and determine their impact on family harmony. Topics include realistic attitudes toward marriage,…

A consideration of legal rights and obligations, together with an effort to effectively handle these rights prior to and during marriage will relieve present and future anxieties and tensions. Parties should consider the antenuptual agreement, as well as partitions of property during marriage. (Author)

This research investigated the relationship between early childbearing and marital instability. Women with large families and those with no children were the most likely to experience disruption. The lowest dissolution rates were found for those with moderate numbers of children. (Author)

Social welfare programs contribute to Black women's decisions to terminate their marriages by modifying existing beliefs and values, giving rise to a perception of welfare as a more viable alternative to marital relationships. But welfare is insufficient to enable the maintenance of Black women's preseparation standard of living. (RDN)

The authors of Open Marriage reiterate the meaning and possibilities of the open marriage concept and advance suggestions for change in the areas of residence, work, child care, and educational patterns. Human service systems must search out the universal values to be maintained in all human relationships. (Editor)

Proposes that community involvement has a curvilinear influence on marital quality, with quality being the highest at an intermediate level of involvement, and the lowest at the extremes of low and high involvement. Empirical data on specific indicators of community involvement primarily support the curvilinear relationship. (Author)

Married persons select leisure activities that are compatible with the kind of interaction they prefer in their marriages, and these activities tend to reinforce the marital patterns. (MB)

This paper proposes that a National Center for the Study of Divorce be established and presents a possible organizational structure for such a body. (Author)

Compared problem-solving behaviors of four samples of couples, sorted by marital happiness/distress and culture (German and Australian). Results showed cultural differences in frequency and functional significance of negative verbal communication, along with cross-culturally consistent marital behaviors associated with marital distress. (Author/TE)

Assessed the prevalence and frequency of marital violence for 88 male alcoholics and their wives at entry to and 1 year after completing a behavioral marital therapy (BMT) program. Although violence and prevalence decreased significantly after treatment, the alcoholics' drinking outcome status was associated with the extent of violence after BMT.…

Studied no-fault divorce law effects on the divorce rate. Results revealed that no-fault divorce laws led to measurable increases in divorce rates. Median family income was the only significant predictor of change in divorce rate; the adjusted post-no-fault divorce rate increased as median family income increased. (RJM)

Describes a self-report scale measuring levels of disaffection toward one's spouse. A questionnaire containing the Marital Disaffection Scale (MDS) and other disaffection measures of marital happiness was administered to 76 spouses. Results indicated good criterion-related validity, discriminant validity, and interitem reliability. Findings…

The long-term consequences for children of marital violence were investigated using data from parents and their adult offspring over time. Marital violence was distinguished from other marital conflict. Outcome effects on young adults' lives of these and other predictor variables were investigated. Implications for counseling are discussed. (EMK)