The effects of marital disruption on adolescents: time as a dynamic.

As part of an ongoing ten-year longitudinal research project, 382 15-year-olds from a white, working-class community were studied. Findings indicate that those who experienced parental separation more recently were most likely to be adversely affected, and that girls from recently disrupted families were more likely than boys to experience problems in emotional and behavioral functioning and were likely to express dissatisfaction with available levels of social support.