MARITAL CONFLICT, DIVORCE, AND CHILDRENS ADJUSTMENT

This article summarizes current research on children's adjustment afte r separation and divorce, and then focuses on the contributions of mar ital conflict, marital violence, and hostile family environments to ch ildren's adjustment during marriage and after divorce. Children living in marriages with frequent and intense conflict are significantly mor e likely to have substantial adjustment problems before parental divor ce and compromised parent-child relationships. These findings suggest that the deleterious effects of divorce per se have been overstated, w ith insufficient attention paid in the clinical and research Literatur e to the damaging effects of highly troubled marriages on children's a djustment.