ABSTRACT
Very few people enter marriage and other committed romantic relationships with plans to divorce or break up. Nonetheless, many of their relationships end. Relational dissolution has become a mainstay of popular culture with approximately 50 percent of first-time marriages, and an even higher percentage of remarriages, ending in separation or divorce (Bramlett & Mosher, 2002; Cherlin, 1992). Researchers, theorists, and laypeople, alike, have become increasingly concerned with the effects of relational dissolution on individuals and on society, as about 40 percent of children will experience the divorce of their parents and nearly half of all children will live in a single-parent household at some point before they reach adulthood (Cherlin, 1992; Glick, 1989; see also, Noller, this volume).
