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Despite the fact that marital divorce rates have decreased throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, couples marrying for the first time continue to face a 50% chance of divorce during their lifetime (National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS], in press). Many other couples never divorce but remain in distressed and/or abusive relationships (Notarius & Markman, 1993). The good news is that there is more information available now than ever before to help couples take meaningful steps to prevent divorce and preserve meaningful relationships.
The aims of this article are to provide an outline of our approach to preventing marital distress and divorce, to summarize the results from our longitudinal research on prevention, and to describe some of our ongoing efforts to test and disseminate our prevention approach with new populations of couples (i.e., couples in the transition to marriage and transition to parenthood stages). Along the way, we will also highlight key dilemmas we and others face in the dissemination of empirically tested interventions beyond the walls of university research settings.
OVERVIEW OF PREVENTION MODEL AND RESEARCH
Destructive Relationship Conflict: A Generic Risk Factor
A recent National Institute of Mental Health report on prevention argues that marital distress and, in particular, destructive marital conflict are major generic risk factors for many forms of dysfunction and psychopathology (Coie et al., 1993). For example, marital and/or family discord has been linked to higher rates of depression in adults (especially women; Coyne, Kahn, & Gotlib, 1987) and a variety of negative outcomes for children, including conduct disorders (Fincham, Grych, & Osborne, 1993), internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety, depression), and juvenile delinquency (Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992). Furthermore, the destructive effects of marital distress on physical health (e.g., Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 1993) and worker productivity (e.g., Markman, Forthofer, Cox, Stanley, & Kessler, 1994) are now being documented.
Evidence from several longitudinal studies of couples suggests that communication problems and destructive marital conflict are among leading risk factors for future divorce and marital distress (e.g., Gottman, 1994; Markman & Hahlweg, 1993). Furthermore, destructive conflict appears to be the most potent mechanism through which the effects of divorce and marital distress are transmitted to spouses and children (Cowan & Cowan, 1992, 1995; Fisher & Fagot, 1993; Grych & Fincham, 1990; Howes...