According to Amato & DeBoer (2001), "Socialization theory assumes that children learn many behaviors through the observation of adult models".  Parents are the main source of children's information on marital relationships, and marital behaviors.  Parents who divorce give their children less opportunity to learn positive social skills compared to parents who stay together.  Parental divorce can lead to learned interpersonal behaviors that undermine intimate relationships and increase marital instability when their children get married.  Amato and DeBoer state that Caspi & Elder (1988) "found that offspring with discordant parents were at greater risk for developing behavior problems.  As adults, these offspring exhibited an abrasive interpersonal style that appeared to affect the quality of their own marriages negatively". "Similarly Amato (1996) round that married offspring with divorced parents exhibited an elevated number of interpersonal problems (such as frequent criticism of the spouse or showing anger easily), and these interpersonal problems, in turn, increased the odds that offspring's marriages ended in divorce".

        Hypothesis 1: "Offspring with continuously married but discordant parents, as well as offspring with divorced parents, have a greater risk of marital instability than children with continuously married, congenial parents".

        Hypothesis 2: "(a) Parents' marital discord predicts parental divorce; (b) Controlling for parents' marital discord causes the association between parental divorce and offspring marital instability to weaken substantially or disappear".

        Hypothesis 3: "(a) Parents' marital discord predicts offspring's marital behavior problems; (b) Offspring's marital behavior problems predict offspring's marital instability; (c) Controlling for offspring's' marital behavior problems causes the association between parents' marital discord (and divorce) and offsprings' marital instability to weaken substantially or disappear".

        Hypothesis 4: "The likelihood of marital instability among offspring is higher when parental divorces are preceded by a low rather than high level of discord".

        Hypothesis 5: "Offspring who are happily married exhibit little marital instability, irrespective or parental divorce.  However, among offspring who are unhappily married, offspring with divorced parents exhibit more marital instability than do offspring with continuously married parents" (Amato & DeBoer 2001).

        Amato & DeBoer (2001) state from (Booth, Amato, Johnson, & Edwards, 1998), that the "analysis was based on a 17-year longitudinal study of marital instability over the life course".  The target population was married individuals in the United States with telephones.  Both spouses had to be present, and they both had to be 55 years of age or younger.  "In 1980, telephone interviewers used random-digit dialing to select a sample of households and a second random procedure to determine whether to interview the husband or wife.  Seventeen percent of targeted individuals could not be reached after 20 call-backs".  Of all the people who were able to be reached, 78 % of them gave complete interviews.  The final sample of married persons (not couples) consisted of 2,033.  "The sample was representative of married individuals with respect to a variety of variables, including age, race, household size, housing tenure, presence of children, and region of the country".
        In 1992 and 1997 children of some of the main respondents were also included in the study.  The children had to be 19 years of age or older to participate in the interview, and they had to have resided in the parents household in 1980.  87% of parents who had children that were eligible for this interview provided the researchers with phone numbers to reach them by.  They had interviews with 88% of the prospective children and were able to use 77% of the information they gathered.  A random procedure was used when the parents had more then one child that was eligible for the study (Amato & DeBoer, 2001).
 
 

        "Children with martially distress parents have few opportunities to learn the skills and interpersonal orientations that facilitate the maintenance of long-term, mutually satisfying intimate relationships.  This reasoning led to the hypothesis that parents' marital discord increases offspring's marital instability, even in the absence of parental divorce (Hypothesis 1).  This hypothesis was not supported with respect to offspring divorce.  Furthermore, controlling for marital discord prior to dissolution did not eliminate the estimated effect of parental divorce on offspring (Hypothesis 2).  Finally, we found no evidence that offspring's interpersonal problems mediated the effect of parental divorce on offspring's thoughts of divorce (Hypothesis 3). Our analysis, therefore, provided little support for the relationship skills explanation of the intergenerational transmission of divorce" (Amato & DeBoer, 2001).
    "The second perspective, based on marital commitment, holds that it is the actual termination of the marriage, rather than the disturbed family relations that precede marital dissolution, that affects children.  Divorce, rather than conflict, undermines children's faith in marital permanence.  Consistent with this perspective, parents' marital discord, in the absence of parental divorce, was not linked with marital dissolution among offspring.  Moreover, this perspective holds that the nonbinding nature of the marital commitment is more apparent when it is preceded by a relatively low level of marital distress (Hypothesis 4).  Consistent with this hypothesis, parental divorce appeared to have a greater impact on offspring when it was preceded by a low rather than a high level of discord.  Finally, Hypothesis 5, which assumed that a lower threshold of marital unhappiness is required to trigger thought of divorce among offspring with divorced parents, was supported--albeit at a marginal level of statistical significance.  Nevertheless, the overall pattern of results provides strong evidence in support of the marital commitment perspective" (Amato & DeBoer, 2001).
        "Marital discord in one generation appeared to increase the number of marital relationship problems, as well as the odds of thinking about divorce, in the next generation.  Apparently, growing up with troubled but continuously married parents predisposes offspring to contemplate in their own marriages.  But without a parental divorce to emulate, these thought are not generally translated into behavior".  There study made no claims that staying married is good nor bad.  But on the other hand it can be harmful to a spouse if they decide to stay in an abusive relationship.  On the other hand, it may beneficial to the couple to stick through the hard times and seek counsiling to work through their problems (Amato & DeBoer, 2001).