Children and Marital Conflict: The Impact of Family Dispute and Resolution

Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview of an important topic
Review: I think that this book lays out the critical issues in understanding the consequences of marital conflict on the lives of children. In my opinion, the balance of theory -- to get you thinking -- and actual research findings -- so that you know the big picture of what is really going with children -- is great. I disagree heartily with the previous reviewer that this book is lightweight. Also the citations are NOT just gratuitous "I'm justifying what I just said." They are also there to suggest to an interested reader **further food for thought.** That is an important distinction.

Rating:
Summary: lightweight review of recent research
Review: This is a good introduction to the topic. It contains some interesting points. One is that even very young children are affected by marital discord. Another is that exposure to discord is likely to make a child more, not less, sensitive to it.

The book has its drawbacks. It's repetitive and heavy on fluffy citations, like "How couples handle differences is also important in marriages (Margolin, 1979; Markman & Kraft, 1989)." (p. 21). Do you really need someone else to back up an assertion that how couples handle differences is "important"?

Another example: "Spousal disengagement and withdrawal are associated with current marital distress [three citations follow]." If such statements of the vague and obvious were left out this book would be even slimmer than it is. These statements are the givens which made me want to read the book, to find out the why and how.