THE EFFECT OF PARENTS MARITAL SATISFACTION ON YOUNG-ADULTS ADAPTATION- A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

Two questions were examined: (a) whether the effects of parents' marit al satisfaction on offspring's adaptation are durable and continue to be manifest when offspring grow up, and b) whether marital satisfactio n operates through the mechanisms of family closeness or cohesion. To address these questions a community-based sample of 172 adolescents wa s studied twice: as teenagers aged 13-18 years, and approximately 6 ye ars later as young adults aged 19-25. At both Time 1 and Time 2 each p arent completed a measure of marital satisfaction and their adolescent s completed self-ratings of emotional and physical health. At Time 1 a dolescents completed three rating scales related to family closeness o r cohesion, and at Time 2 they rated how close they felt to their moth ers and to their fathers. Correlational and regression analyses reveal ed the following: (a) over a 6-year interval, the marital satisfaction of mothers was somewhat better than that of fathers in predicting the subsequent emotional and physical health of young adults; (b) parents ' marital satisfaction assessed when offspring were adolescents predic ted young adult outcomes better than contemporaneous associations at e ither Time 1 or Time 2; (c) although family closeness or cohesion serv ed as a mediator for some outcomes, direct paths remained between mari tal satisfaction and young adult outcomes.