The purpose of this research was to test a model of intergenerational transmission of marital instability. In addition, gender differences in the process of intergenerational transmission of marital instability were assessed. An important aspect of the present study was to test the direct and indirect intergenerational transmission processes of marital instability;This study revealed four very important findings. First, the effects of parental divorce on children's marital instability were both direct and indirect through mate selection risk factors, marital quality, and marital commitment. Second, premarital backgrounds, such as socioeconomic status of parents and relative heterogeneity between spouse before marriage, were important to explain one's marital relationship. Third, marital quality was a very important mediator between parental divorce and marital instability. Fourth, there were gender differences in the process of intergenerational transmission of marital instability. The hypothesized model explained the marital relationships of females better than of males. Parental divorce, relative heterogeneity, and alternatives exerted a strong impact on the marital relationship for females when compared to their male counterparts;The comparison of a contemporaneous versus a past influence model demonstrated that the past influence model was a better model compared to the wave 3, contemporaneous model. The regression coefficients also indicated that wave 3 marital commitment were better predicted by wave 2 economic independence than wave 3 economic independence. The comparison of model for adult children from divorced families and adult children from intact families suggests that the model for adult children from intact families was a better model compared to the model for adult children from divorced families;Taken together, this study supports the intergenerational transmission perspective that exposure to conflict marriage in one's own childhood would forecast lower marital satisfaction, higher conflict and higher marital instability in the marital relationship. The findings from this study also underline the importance of predisposing marital characteristics, such as parental socioeconomic status and relative heterogeneity, in explaining marital relationship.