Amato and Booth find these concerns to be in order, with marital conflict and divorce associated with negative outcomes for children as they enter their adult years. Study results show extensive negative effects of parental discord, with associations to problematic relationships between adult children and their parents, more difficulties in dating, lower marital quality and a higher divorce rate, weaker social networks, less education, and poorer psychological well-being. Parental divorce is also associated with problematic parent-child relationships, increased divorce among offspring, and lower education and income among adult children. Recent changes in family gender roles have neutral or favorable effects on children as they reach adulthood. Whether it's Mom working out of the home, or Dad doing more work in the home, children seem to be getting the support they need for a successful transition to adulthood.
Education has positive effects even in the next generation.
Most impressive is the extension of those benefits beyond the worlds of education and occupation and into the realms of psychological well being and marital happiness. Poverty is hard on children, and provides them a rocky transition to adulthood, with lower educational attainment, less help from parents in moving into adulthood, and lower marital quality. Divorce is not good for children, but family conflict is even worse, with negative effects permeating the lives of the children as they establish homes and families of their own. The first lesson would be the value of an investment in education, with favorable effects for generations to come. Policy makers should put access to education at the top of their pro-family agenda.