Judith S. Wallerstein

The Long-Term Effects of Divorce on Children: A Review

A comprehensive review of research from several disciplines regarding long-term effects of divorce on children yields a growing consensus that significant numbers of children suffer for many years from psychological and social difficulties associated with continuing and/or new stresses within the postdivorce family and experience heightened anxiety in forming enduring attachments at later developmental stages including young adulthood. Different conceptual models in the field are explicated. Major lacunae in research, particularly around issues of public policy, are identified. The critical importance of expanding clinical research to enhance understanding of the childs perspective and experience is proposed.

WOMEN AFTER DIVORCE: Preliminary Report from a Ten‐Year Follow‐Up

Findings from a ten-year longitudinal study of 60 divorcing families from a middle-class California population show significant differences between former spouses in the quality of their current lives, differences in psychological change between men and women, and age-related differences in recovery among women. Persistence of anger and widespread loneliness were prevalent among these divorced women.

CHILDREN OF DIVORCE: Preliminary Report of a Ten-Year Follow-Up of Young Children

Early findings from a ten-year follow-up of youngsters, now in their teens, whose parents had divorced when they were between two-and-one-half and six years old, suggest that those who were youngest at the time of the marital breakup fared better in the ensuing years than their older siblings, who experienced more difficulty in dealing with troubled memories of family strife. Issues of adjustment in this group of youngsters are examined, based on semistructured clinical interviews with 30 children and 40 parents.

The unexpected legacy of divorce: Report of a 25-year study

This follow-up study of 131 children, who were 3–18 years old when their parents divorced in the early 1970s, marks the culmination of 25 years of research. The use of extensive clinical interviews allowed for exploration in great depth of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as they negotiated childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood. At the 25-year follow-up, a comparison group of their peers from the same community was added. Described in rich clinical detail, the findings highlight the unexpected gulf between growing up in intact versus divorced families, and the difficulties children of divorce encounter in achieving love, sexual intimacy, and commitment to marriage and parenthood. These findings have significant implications for new clinical and educational interventions.

CHILDREN OF DIVORCE: Report of a Ten-Year Follow-Up of Early Latency-Age Children

Findings from a ten-year follow-up of 38 youngsters now 16 to 18 years old, whose parents divorced during the childrens early latency, suggest that separation from families and the transition into young adulthood are burdened by fear of disappointment in love relationships, lowered expectations, and a sense of powerlessness. A need for the father, especially among boys, appears to burgeon at middle and late adolescence.

Part‐time parent, part‐time child: Visiting after divorce

Abstract Patterns ousiting between non‐custodial parent and child after divorce are described, as studied in a five‐year clinical research project investigating the experience and effects of divorce on 131 children and adolescents from 60 divorcing families. The changed yet significant role of the part‐time parent is discussed in the context of the extraordinary continuity in contact for many parents and their children following divorce.

Disparate parenting and step-parenting with siblings in the post-divorce family: Report from a 10-year longitudinal study

Abstract A longitudinal study of divorced families shows widely discrepant psychological adjustment among siblings along with disparate relationships with parents and stepparents in one half of the families at the 10-year follow-up. These differences in sibling adjustment and parent–child relationships were not evident at the divorce assessment. This instability in many parent–child relationships following divorce and remarriage challenges the view of divorce as an acute time-limited crisis for children and court policy that assumes that parent–child relationships at divorce will remain relatively unchanged over the years that follow. Findings also show the power of remarriage to reshape parenting styles of biological parents.

A PREVENTIVE INTERVENTION PROGRAM FOR PARENTS AND YOUNG CHILDREN IN JOINT CUSTODY ARRANGEMENTS

A pilot preventive intervention model was developed for a voluntary joint custody counseling program for parents of very young children. The program, which includes assessments, conferences, and ongoing counseling achieved by monitoring at regular intervals, is adaptable to agency or private clinical settings. Based on initial positive reactions of participants, more formal evaluation of the programs efficacy and applicability is proposed.