Reviews the literature on the role of family distress in the treatment of children's behavior disorders. Describes a system for integrating marital- and child-focused treatments and makes suggestions for improving the design of studies assessing the impact of contextual factors on parent-child interaction. (FMW)

Analyzes the effect of parental divorce at adolescence to determine if young women, who initially coped well, experienced a significant reversal in adjustment in early adulthood. Results from a 10-year study found no significant differences in mean adjustment scores between girls from intact and divorced families at any time. (RJM)

Examines the relationship between parental divorce or separation and selected aspects of academic motivation and educational aspiration for 900 African-American first-year college students. By the age of college attendance, there may be no salient motivational or educational aspiration differences resulting from a nonintact family among these…

Examined individual differences in young children's understanding of emotion and potential correlates in the domain of family experiences. Found that individual differences in children's understanding of negative emotions were related to specific aspects of family experiences. Findings suggest complex influences of family functioning on children's…

We examine the assortative mating patterns of new parents who are married, cohabiting, romantically involved and no longer romantically involved. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, we find that relationship status at the time of a birth depends mainly on father's race rather than on whether mother and father's…

Domestic violence is the most frequent type of violent crime, thus children are likely to experience or witness violence at home. In this study, familial variables predictive of domestic violence were investigated. Data were collected from 64 intake forms at a battered women's shelter in the Mississippi Delta. Most clients were white and had…

This working paper discusses the effects of recent legislative changes regarding divorce in Australia. The introduction describes the 1975 Family Law Act and gives a summary of its principles. The second section presents background information to the Act and lists the philosophical principles behind its formation. The third section describes…

This paper reviews the literature on the elderly prisoner, defined in the majority of studies as 50 or 55 years of age. A discussion from several surveys dealing with the numbers of older adult felons is presented and the crimes that brought these older men to prison are described. Some of the characteristics of older prisoners are discussed,…

This paper presents a model or framework of marital adjustment, for both the researcher and the practitioner, which provides description, explanation, and modification, i.e., ways in which the model can be changed that are theoretically connected with the description and the explanation. A typology of relationship processes is proposed which…

Traditional psychological theories which focus on the pathological tendencies of the individual account for little of the reported widespread spouse abuse. Social exchange and general systems theories focus on problems in the relationship rather than problems in the person. Given that a family perspective may be helpful in long-term treatment of…

The concepts of moral reasoning developed by Lawrence Kohlberg can be applied to the analysis of communication in intimate relationships in an attempt to deal with the high rate of marital dissolution. Kohlberg has identified three levels of moral reasoning: (1) preconventional, in which a person reasons in terms of punishment, reward, or exchange…

West Indian family organization has been observed to exhibit relatively greater instances of brittle common law unions, out-of-wedlock births, and female headed households than is the case with other New World populations. Three primary explanations have been given to explain the presence of these patterns: the retention or reinterpretation of…

The report presents survey results about the marital histories of husbands and wives or changes in marital status of mothers and characteristics of their children. Data were collected in June 1975, by the U. S. Bureau of the Census. An introduction summarizes trends which the data suggest. Seven sections discuss number of times husband and wife…

Recent books portraying children who are experiencing family changes due to divorce and adjusting to stepparents have become more plentiful. Reading about how others have handled similar situations can be helpful for your children, giving them perspective, awareness of some of their feelings, fears, or mistaken ideas, and suggesting ways to solve…

This manual describes the operation of a shelter facility for victims of domestic violence and is based on the program developed by the Community Crisis Center in Elgin, Illinois. The introduction discusses ways to organize concerned individuals; steps are then given for gathering information and resources, and acquiring real estate, equipment,…