Predicting marital separation: do parent-child relationships matter?

This study used a family systems perspective in modeling predictors of marital separation within married-parent families with adolescents. Specifically, we examined whether mother-adolescent closeness and negativity, father-adolescent closeness and negativity, and couple relationship quality (mothers' and fathers' positive marital behaviors) prospectively predicted the likelihood of marital separation, operationalized as the father moving out of the household. Data were derived from the first 4 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 (n = 1649), assessing both biological and stepfather families. Results from complementary log-log analyses revealed that marital separations were related to complex family relationships. Specifically, greater mother-adolescent closeness predicted a higher likelihood of marital separation, whereas greater father-child closeness predicted a lower likelihood. In addition, mothers' more positive marital behaviors toward fathers predicted a lower likelihood of marital separation. Patterns were largely similar between biological and stepfather families, with the exception that mothers' positive marital behaviors toward fathers were more influential within biological father families.