ABSTRACT
It is now generally acknowledged that parental conflict is a serious risk factor that predicts child disturbance. This has been found both within intact families (Block, Block, & Gjerde, 1988; Block, Block, & Morrison, 1981; Emery & O'Leary, 1982; Johnson & Lobitz, 1974; Johnson & O'Leary, 1987; Porter & O'Leary, 1980; Whitehead, 1979) and within divorcing families (Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1982; Jacobson, 1978; Johnston, Gonzalez, & Campbell, 1987; Rutter, 1971; Shaw & Emery, 1987). Recent attention to the children of marital violence has identified the more severe and overt forms of parental hostility and aggression as placing children at greater risk, although the parental violence is often linked with other stressors in these very troubled families (Hershorn & Rosenbaum, 1985; Jouriles, Barling, & O'Leary, 1987; Rosenbaum & O'Leary, 1981; Shaw & Emery, 1988; Wolfe, Jaffe, Wilson, & Zak, 1985). Exposure to parental conflict, together with affective distress and psychological disorders within parents (usually the caretaking mother), is a greater hazard to children than are many other stressful events associated with divorce, including acute loss due to separation from a parent (usually the father). (See Rutter’s early epidemiological studies, 1971; and extensive reviews by Emery, 1982; and Grych & Fincham, 1990; Cherlin, Furstenberg, Chase-Lansdale, Kiernan, Robins, Morrison & Teitler, 1991).
