Patterns of marital relationships and family adjustment after separation

In a longitudinal study we investigated variations and patterns of marital relationships and analysed correlations with measures of adjustment in 60 families of divorce at three waves (10, 25, and 40 months after separation). The separated couples showed significant deviations from the FDTS standardization sample (subtest ''marital relationship''). Mothers and fathers differed in their subjective perspectives. In a further step three types of interparental relationships were found that differentiated significantly on the FDTS-scales. The three subgroups did not correlate with personal or sociographic characteristics in the families, but were significantly related to psyche-physical stress of both parents, to the quality of the parent-child-relationship, and to behavioral problems of the children in the affected families.