Volume 2 – From Birth to 29 Months

Number 11 – The Couple

Conjugal satisfaction is an important issue, given its close connection with child development. This, therefore, is the focus of the first section of the present document. For children living continuously in a biological intact family from birth to 2½ years, the authors examine the prevalence of couple distress among parents, on the one hand, and the factors associated with conjugal satisfaction, on the other.

In the second part, attention is directed towards the factors associated with parental separation occurring early on in children’s lives. The authors explore whether the presence in the parent’s conjugal history of characteristics generally associated with union instability, such as whether parents are in a common-law union, is also linked to a raised risk of early separation. The impact of certain socio-economic characteristics, such as household income or the level of parents’ education, is also examined.