About 26% of all children under age 18 live with a divorced or separated parent or with a stepparent. Since divorce is a crucial factor in the lives of millions of children in this country, this issue is devoted to its social, economic, and psychological impacts. (SLD)

A New Zealand mail survey (n=1,376) and interviews (n=497) evaluated the long-term impact of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of female children surveyed as adults. Similarities in outcomes among the three forms of abuse were more apparent than differences, though sexual abuse was particularly associated with sexual problems, emotional abuse…

Uses social bonding theory to address the connection between violent family heritage and violence or nonviolence in adult intimate relationships. Findings show that, despite violent family histories, men who develop strong attachments and who perceive negative sanction threats from significant others, are more prone to nonviolence with female…

Cherlin argues that Gill's procedural criticisms of Cherlin's work are groundless, and underlying themes of both of Gill's articles do not guide public policy concerning children and families. Gill's response to Cherlin notes that anecdotal evidence shows that increased availability and social acceptability of divorce cause more marital problems.…

This paper describes challenges faced in a four-year project to develop a manualized couples treatment program for domestic violence. The couples treatment program is an add-on to a male batterer program where the male partner has perpetrated mild-to-moderate violence, yet both partners want to remain together. The project involved the cooperation…

This investigation examined relationship stability among 60 women court-mandated to violence interventions by applying a general model (i.e., Rusbult's 1980 Investment Model) to predict intentions to leave current relationships. As in past research, results showed that Investment Model predictions were supported such that court-mandated women who…

The present prospective, longitudinal study of 451 adolescents and their parents extends earlier research by investigating whether change in marital problems predicts change in adolescent adjustment, after controlling for other marital problems and socioeconomic status. Latent growth curves over a period of 5 years were used, and the results…

This study examined the relation between early family relationship patterns and adolescents' regulation of negative affect; attunement to their partners' affect; and capacity to balance their needs with those of their partner during conflict. A total of 27 college women completed measures pertaining to their relationship with their parents and…

Stresses which accompany graduate education are often a source of marital conflict and disruption for students and their families. To investigate the effects of the graduate experience on intra- and inter-family relationships among married doctoral student couples, and to discover how these students cope with the dual student/spouse role, 16…

In order to identify causes of spousal abuse, current research efforts have attempted to reconstruct the communicative components of physically aggressive encounters within the family. An interactionist model of intrafamily violence, proposed by D. A. Infante, suggests that the interaction of personal, situational, and societal conditions may lead…

The current trend toward increased participation of women in the work force has produced an emerging contemporary model of dual career families. Previous research about the dynamics of successful working couples has emphasized the need for an investigation of personality characteristics of such couples. Dual career couples (N=51) were separated…

Psychological abuse, defined as behavior that is sufficiently threatening to limit the capacity to work, family and social interactions, and the enjoyment of good physical or mental health can be as damaging to women as physical abuse. To learn more about this behavior a series of open ended interviews was conducted with 25 women who identified…

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether there was a consistent relationship between various deviant personality patterns and the status of the home from which the child came. Subjects were 300 adolescents from a population of 834 Caucasian teenagers, aged 12 to 18, not mentally deficient or retarded, from across the U.S., who were…

The research reported here examines the consequences of inconsistency between the individual's statuses, his or her spouse's statuses, as well as inconsistencies between husbands' and wives' education and occupation status. Measures of generalized life dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction with marriage are the outcome variables. The data were…

The relationship between the degree of marital adjustment and the emotional adjustment of the children within the family is widely accepted as is the corollary belief that the marital relationship determines the child's adjustment. A sample of 69 married couples with children was used to examine the interrelationships among several measures of…