MARITAL CONFLICT AND CHILD ADJUSTMENT - WHAT ABOUT GENDER

Within the field of marital conflict, a variety of theoretical framewo rks have been developed attempting to explain the causal mechanisms co nnecting marital conflict to child adjustment. At the same time, there has been an accumulation of findings indicating that gender may be pl aying a significant and complex role in the relationship between marit al conflict and child adjustment. However, the majority of the framewo rks which have been proposed have largely overlooked these complex gen der findings. The main theoretical frameworks in the field are summari zed, and the implications of the accumulated gender findings for each framework are outlined. It is argued that gender may be a moderator of many of the mechanisms outlined in existing theoretical frameworks li nking marital conflict to child adjustment and needs to be more effect ively incorporated in future research, (C) 1998 Academic Press.