ABSTRACT
For decades, social scientists have been examining the social and demographic predictors of divorce, such as age at marriage, parental status, social class, and race or ethnicity (Booth, Johnson, White, & Edwards, 1984; Kitson & Sussman, 1982; Kurdek, 1991, 1993; Martin & Bumpass, 1989; Spanier & Thompson, 1984; White, 1990). More recently, researchers have focused on social-psychological, interpersonal, and intrapersonal factors, and how conflict and destructive patterns of communication can lead to marital breakdown and divorce (Bodenmann, 1997; Bodenmann & Cina, 1999; Gottman, 1994; Gottman & Levenson, 1992, 2000; Leonard & Roberts, 1998; Lindahl, Clements, & Markman, 1998; Noller & Feeney, 1998).
