Current Positive Family Relationships Linked to Healthy Marriages Later

Adolescents who have positive relationships with their parents tend to have stable and satisfying relationships in their early adult marriages as well as romantic relationships, a University of California Davis study has found.

Researchers, who began studying 265 individuals in the 1990s, found that nurturing parents contributed to the future success of their children's young adult romantic relationships.

"Our results indicate that when parenting behaviors are high in warmth and supportiveness, high in levels of child monitoring and positive child management and low in levels of harsh and inconsistent discipline in adolescence, early adult children are more likely to endorse the belief that marriage requires emotional investment," researchers said. "In turn, these emotional investments were associated with more positive romantic relationship interactions with a partner."

The study has practical implications for the importance of premarital and marital counseling that emphasizes the positive aspects of parenting, commitment in marriage and romantic relationships, sharing of relationship beliefs and expectations, and other aspects that can prepare people for romantic partnerships, the authors said.

Source: Daily Democrat
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_22759302/uc-davis-study-positive-family-relationships-linked-healthy