This article examines the intervening pathways linking parental marital disruption and childhood family conflict with the quality of early adult marriages, using data from a panel study of young adults in the Boston metropolitan area (N = 230). Although parental divorce during childhood was not significantly related to the quality of marital relationships in young adulthood, childhood family conflict was strongly related to several measures of later marital quality. The early adult consequences of childhood family conflict were explained to some extent by the level of conflict in adolescent dating relationships, suggesting considerable continuity in relationships over time.
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