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Marital discord and childhood behavior problems

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Abstract

Measures of overt marital hostility, general marital adjustment, and children's behavior problems were obtained from the parents of 64 children referred to a child psychological clinic. Correlations between children's scores on measures of general marital unhappiness and overt marital hostility were compared. Overt marital hostility correlated significantly with many behavior problems of boys. However, neither general marital unhappiness nor overt marital hostility related to problem behaviors in girls. Specific findings and possible reasons for the differential results with respect to boys and girls were discussed.

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Reference notes

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  2. Emery, R., & O'Leary, K. D.Children's perceptions of marital discord and its relation to behavior problems of boys and girls. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, San Francisco, December 1979.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 11794, Stony Brook, New York

    Beatrice Porter & K. Daniel O'Leary (Chairman)

Authors
  1. Beatrice Porter
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  2. K. Daniel O'Leary
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Special thanks to Robert Emery for his expertise regarding the analysis of our data.

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Porter, B., O'Leary, K.D. Marital discord and childhood behavior problems. J Abnorm Child Psychol 8, 287–295 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00916376

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00916376

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