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Children’s Adaptation to Divorce

From Description to Explanation

  • Chapter
Handbook of Children’s Coping

Part of the book series: Issues in Clinical Child Psychology ((ICCP))

Abstract

Divorce has become a common experience for children in the United States, where one out of every two is likely to undergo a parental divorce before the age of 18 (see Emery, 1988; Furstenberg, 1990). The high divorce rate has been viewed with alarm by many because there long has been a perception that “broken” homes adversely affect children’s adjustment. Early investigations of the effects of divorce on children appeared to support the idea that children from divorced homes were more poorly adjusted than those from intact families, but more recent investigations have gone beyond this simple comparison to investigate processes that lead to better or worse outcomes. In this chapter we examine research on children’s adaptation to divorce. To provide a context for our analysis, we begin by summarizing the epidemiology of divorce in the United States and research on the effects of divorce on children. The bulk of the chapter then examines children’s adaptation to divorce in relation to four important questions: What increases the stressfulness of divorce for children? What helps children cope more effectively? What interventions exist to facilitate children’s adjustment after divorce? What do we still need to learn about children’s adaptation after divorce? 1960s and 1970s (Cherlin, 1981). Some demographers report that the rate leveled off in the 1980s, but others argue that it has continued to rise (see Castro Martin & Bumpass, 1989).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53233, USA

    John H. Grych

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Wales, Cardiff, CF1 3YG, Great Britain

    Frank D. Fincham

Authors
  1. John H. Grych
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  2. Frank D. Fincham
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA

    Sharlene A. Wolchik  & Irwin N. Sandler  & 

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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Grych, J.H., Fincham, F.D. (1997). Children’s Adaptation to Divorce. In: Wolchik, S.A., Sandler, I.N. (eds) Handbook of Children’s Coping. Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2677-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2677-0_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-3269-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-2677-0

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