ABSTRACT

SUMMARY. Using nationally representative surveys (The Health Examination Survey, Cycles II and III) this project attempts to assess the impact of marital disruption on children and youth in the following broad areas of human development: emotional development, physical health, moral development, peer group relations, school adjustment, cognitive achievement and intellectual development. It is argued that mechanisms by which marital disruption might produce effects can be summarized in three models—the trauma model, the structural model and the deficiency model. For the most part, the impact of marital adjustment on the study population is small, generally indirect and, where differences are found, about as likely to improve the development of the child from the divorced household as to retard it. The results are interpreted as providing mild support to the structural model.