Marriage, divorce, and children's adjustment / Robert E. Emery.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Emery, Robert E.

Series:

Developmental clinical psychology and psychiatry ; v. 14.

Developmental clinical psychology and psychiatry

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children of divorced parents--Mental health.

Children of divorced parents.

Adjustment (Psychology) in children.

Families--Psychological aspects.

Families.

Physical Description:

xii, 164 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, [1999]

Summary:

This completely updated second edition presents an integrated, multidisciplinary account of children's experiences of divorce from historical, cultural and demographic perspectives. The author highlights children's resilience, but is sensitive to children's pain throughout the divorce process and afterwards. In addition he reviews the psychological, social, economic and legal consequences of divorce, and examines how children's risk is predicted by parental conflict, relationships with both parents, financial strain, custody disputes, and other factors. The author uses his family systems model to integrate research findings into a theoretical whole and to evaluate psychological interventions with divorcing and divorced families.

Contents:

Gaining Perspective on Children and Divorce 1

Some Family Transitions in Divorce 2

2. Some Cultural, Historical, and Demographic Perspectives 5

The Changing Family 6

A Brief History of Marital Dissolution in the United States 11

Demographics of Divorce in the United States Today 13

Family Living Circumstances of Children in the United States Today 16

Children's Postdivorce Living Arrangements 17

3. Methodological and Conceptual Issues 21

Sampling 21

Measurement 25

Interpreting Correlations Between Marital and Child Problems 26

Temporal Influences on Children's Divorce Adjustment 28

4. Children's Adjustment in Divorced and Married Families 33

Global Adjustment: Stress, Risk, Resilience, and Pain 34

Externalizing Problems 40

Internalizing Problems 43

Academic Competence 45

Social Competence 47

Intergenerational Issues in Intimacy, Marriage, and Divorce 48

Emotional Health During Adult Life 50

5. Family Processes and Children's Divorce Adjustment 55

Adjustment Over Time and Development 55

Interparental Conflict 61

Separation From an Attachment Figure 65

Parent-Child Relationships: Prevalence of Problems 67

Parent-Child Relationships: Residential Parents 69

Parent-Child Relationships: Nonresidential Parents 74

Joint Physical Custody 79

Economic Factors 81

Remarriage 85

Parental Mental Health, Siblings, and Ethnicity 86

6. Therapeutic Intervention: Approaches and Research 91

Renegotiating Family Relationships 91

Individual Coping Tasks: Grief and Identity Conflict 93

Boundaries in Parent-Child Relationships 94

The Coparenting Relationship 95

The Parent-Child-Parent Triad 96

Treatment Outcome Research on Divorce 97

Family Interventions 98

School-Based Groups for Children 100

7. Legal Intervention: Laws, Policies, and New Directions 103

The Regulation of Divorce 104

Divorce Settlements 107

Finances: Property Division, Alimony, and Child Support 108

Legal and Physical Custody 116

The Settlement of Divorce Disputes 123

Divorce Mediation 125

Unarticulated Values 128.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 133-152) and index.

ISBN:

0761902511

076190252X

OCLC:

40249726