"Conflict of Divorce" Article Summary
The title of the article is “Conflict or Divorce? Does Parental Conflict and/or Divorce Increase the Likelihood of Adult Children's Cohabiting and Marital Dissolution?” written by Gager, Yabiku and Linver. The authors of this research examine the impact of the conflict or divorce on children and the probability of their divorce in the future based on parents’ experience. This study is a continuation of previous studies on this issue. The authors take into account the main features that characterize predivorce families. The research compares children in the intact family with the kids from high conflict families. The authors consider the influence of two main variables - the age of adult children upon marriage, and whether the first experience of their relationship was related to cohabitation or not. Also, this article focuses on theoretical perspectives on this problem. Thus, social learning theory assumes that children tend to imitate the behavior of adults and adopt their habits. Observational learning theory suggests that long-term conflicts have the most transformational impact on the personal relationships of adult children. Thus, constant family conflicts have an adverse effect on children's behavior and their emotional condition.
For this study, the authors use three NSFH waves. The first wave (fielded in 1987-1988) is aimed at the family variables. The second wave (1992-1994) determines whether the relationship has ended as a result of conflicts or not. The third wave (2001-2003) is aimed at measuring variables. The NSFH method allows describing the levels of conflict between parents, as well as the characteristics of adult children and their relationships. The authors use tables to show the descriptive statistics about the impact of divorce and conflicts. The main argument is that high conflict between parents has a significant impact on children and negatively affects the personal relationships of adult children in the future. Moreover, the study showed that children from intact but conflict families are more affected than children who are brought up by a single parent. The research is based on scientific literature and reliable facts.
Work Cited
Gager, Constance T., Scott T. Yabiku, and Miriam R. Linver. “Conflict or Divorce? Does Parental Conflict and/or Divorce Increase the Likelihood of Adult Children's Cohabiting and Marital Dissolution?”. Marriage & Family Review, vol. 52, no. 3, 2015, pp. …
