PARENTAL MARITAL QUALITY, PARENTAL DIVORCE, AND RELATIONS WITH PARENTS

Using longitudinal data based on interviews with 419 parents and their adult children, we assess the impact of parental marital quality and divorce while the child is residing with parents on adult child-parent relations 12 years later. Low marital quality and divorce appear to have independent effects on adult child-parent relations. Fathers' relationships suffer more than mothers' and opposite sex ties deteriorate more than same sex ones. We find that when marital quality is high, children who are close to one parent tend to be close to the other as well But when marital quality is low, children tend to be close to one parent only. The data suggest that the way in which poor marital quality and divorce affect adult child-parent relations is by lowering support of children while they are young.