The deleterious effects of marital conflict on youth outcomes are well-documented in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. To date, longitudinal studies have focused on repeated measures of youths' outcomes and the temporal dynamics of marital conflict have largely been ignored. Marital conflict changes over time as contextual and…

Although the assertion that marital hostility relates to higher levels of youth adjustment difficulties has been well established, few studies have examined cooperative marital conflict in relation to youth behavior problems. This study examined the main and moderating effects of cooperative marital conflict on youth behavior problems in a sample…

This study examined whether children’s difficulties with stage-salient tasks served as an explanatory mechanism in the pathway between their insecurity in the interparental relationship and their disruptive behavior problems. Using a multimethod, multi-informant design, 201 two-year-old children and their mothers participated in 3 annual…

The present study investigated associations between maternal relationship instability patterns and children's behavioral and emotional functioning in middle childhood in a representative sample of low-income urban families (N = 891). Data from the "Three-City Study" tracked maternal partnerships through the child's life, assessing total marital…

Self-representations of 1st-, 3rd-, and 5th-graders' social and academic competence were examined in relation to children's personal (grade/age); family (attachment to parents, marital conflict, anxiety related to conflict); and school (teacher appraisals) contexts. Children who reported higher levels of security of attachment to parents and lower…

Research on divorce has found that adolescents' feelings of being caught between parents are linked to internalizing problems and weak parent-child relationships. The present study estimates the effects of marital discord, as well as divorce, on young adult offspring's feelings of being caught in the middle (N=632). Children with parents in…

Evaluation of child-centered families with mentally retarded children has generated a body of theory based on new concepts of these families. Evidence suggests that relational processes interfering with functional structure in these families also give rise to significant emotional development problems for the retarded child. In turn, symptoms are…

Analyzes data on the marital stability of young parents from the 1972 National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. Reports that the birth of the first child strengthens the short-run stability of marriages: disruption rates of 5 to 8 percent were lower than estimated rates had the child not been born. (KH)

Discusses a no lose approach to custody battles, wherein parents are helped to negotiate and create their own custody and visitation arrangements. The process, its strengths, and problems, and the parents' evaluative comments are discussed. (Author)

Although some couples avoid divorce for children's benefit, divorce may actually be a better solution than an unhappy home. Children's potential for creating stress between spouses may sometimes make divorce more likely. Counseling may provide alternatives. (JAC)

This article examines the four options a couple has upon reaching the conclusion that their present marriage is at an end. The options are staying together as they are "for the children", divorcing with "blame's the game", a "re-built" marriage, or a "victimless" divorce. (Author)

Stages of adjustment for children and adolescents trying to cope with their parents' divorce are delineated, and the emotional processes involved with divorce itself are discussed. (LH)

Contrary to folk belief, children are in themselves no correction for basic flaws in an unsuccessful marriage. Explored are the ways in which specific aspects of marital conflict and pathology can induce specific aberrations in the personality development of the child. (Author/CJ)

Parents completed the Locke-Wallace Scale, the Interpersonal Checklist, and the Children's Behavior Checklist to assess marital satisfaction, congruence of perceptions, and agreement in perceptions of their child and child adjustment. Variables were positively intercorrelated. Similarity in partners' self-concepts and psychological empathy were…

This study addresses three questions: Does earlier family mobility have long-term effects on later parent-adult offspring relations? Do differences in parenting behaviors and family social capital account for these effects? Does the family structure in which a move occurs matter? The author investigates these issues using 17-year longitudinal data…