Children's adjustment in conflicted marriage and divorce: A decade review of research

Objectives: To review important research of the past decade in divorce, mar ital conflict, and children's adjustment and to describe newer divorce inte rventions. Method: Key empirical studies from 1990 to 1999 were surveyed re garding the impact of marital conflict, parental violence, and divorce on t he psychological adjustment of children, adolescents, and young adults. Res ults: Recent studies investigating the impact of divorce on children have f ound that many of the psychological symptoms seen in children of divorce ca n be accounted for in the years before divorce. The past decade also has se en a large increase in studies assessing complex variables within the marri age which profoundly affect child and adolescent adjustment, including mari tal conflict and violence and related parenting behaviors. This newer liter ature provides provocative and helpful information for forensic and clinica l psychiatrists in their work with both married and divorcing families. Con clusions: While children of divorced parents, as a group, have more adjustm ent problems than do children of never-divorced parents. the view that divo rce per se is the major cause of these symptoms must be reconsidered in lig ht of newer research documenting the negative effects of troubled marriages on children.