A REVIEW OF ONLINE DIVORCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Divorce education programs first surfaced over four decades ago. Today, many states mandate parents to participate in a divorce education program before their dissolution can be finalized. Changes in the technological landscape have allowed innovative practitioners to create online divorce education programs, yet these programs have not been formally evaluated for quality. Adapting a research design for evaluating face‐to‐face programs, we created an online divorce education review form and reviewed online divorce education programs that parents use to meet court‐mandated requirements. Results reveal that online programs have significant potential to help divorcing parents, yet there are areas of online program content and instructional strategies that can be improved. Program content that includes legal and court focused topics or modules, or that offer advice for families facing special circumstances such as domestic violence, could be enhanced. Additionally, most of the instructional strategies were passive. With this research, recommendations were made for improving program content and instructional strategies for online divorce education programs.     

Factors Predicting Relationship Satisfaction,Investment, and Commitment When Women Report High Prevalence of Psychological Abuse

Relationship satisfaction, investment, and commitment in women experiencing extensive psychological abuse were examined to determine predictive factors. Participants were the top quartile of a national sample of women in conflictual relationships (N = 81) experiencing psychological maltreatment. Relationship satisfaction, investment, and commitment were each used as criterion variables with conceptually related factors as the predictors (e.g., reactions to the psychological abuse; mental health indicators; personality variables; perceived harm; problematic relationship schemas; response styles; demographics). These relationship markers were differentially predicted within this group of women. Three independent clusters of women, based on patterns of satisfaction, investment, and commitment scores, were compared regarding physical abuse, reactions to psychological abuse, ratings of perceived harm, endorsement of relationship schemas, psychological distress variables, and personality variables. The cluster of women reporting higher satisfaction, investment, and commitment in these seemingly aversive relationships frequently demonstrated differences from the other two clusters. Implications for clinical applications are discussed.     

Variations in the Recidivism of Treated and Nontreated Sexual Offenders in New Jersey: An Examination of Three Time Frames

This study examines the recidivism of sexual offenders in New Jersey at three different time intervals: three years, five years, and ten years after release from prison. The sample is comprised of sexual offenders released from the general prison population (untreated sample, n = 150) and the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center (ADTC) (treated sample, n = 150), a sex offender specific facility. The goals of this study were twofold: (1) to identify the recidivism rates of sexual offenders and to determine whether sexual offenders who receive treatment demonstrate lower levels of recidivism and (2) to examine whether differences in recidivism exist among the varying time frames and offender subtypes. The results indicate that treated sex offenders maintained decreased nonsexual recidivism rates. Additionally, offenders who committed acts of rape and offenders followed up after six years had increased rates of recidivism.     

Telling Stories about Women and Gender in the War on Terror

This article focuses on the role of gender in boundary-drawing practices, in the construction of identities and in the discursive construction and depiction of the “body politic” in the War on Terror. It argues that the evocation of “liberated Western women” and “oppressed Muslim” women in narratives on the War on Terror has been useful in the project of casting the United States as a beacon of civilisation and in constructing, reinforcing and reproducing a polarity between the West and the Islamic world. The War on Terror has also generated narratives about male protectors and the female protected; narratives that are also central to boundary-drawing processes. The final section of the article focuses on “dissident stories” that have challenged dominant meanings and dominant constructions of identity and boundaries, and unsettled simplistic and dichotomous characterisations of “good” and “evil” in the War on Terror.     

Reviews & Resources

Theatre

The Miss Firecracker Contest, by Be A Henley at Westside Arts Theatre, New York City.

Me and My Shadow by Terry Wolver‐ton, at ABC No Rio in New York City, Fall 1984.

A Good American Novel, by Beth Lapides, at P.S. 122, New York City, December 1984.

nubs? (?nubs/'nebz/n: an ugly woman), by Lisa Goldberg, produced at SUNY‐Binghamton Fine Arts Center, December 1984.

Out/In The World: Life in the Work of Jane Bowles, created, directed and performed by Ellie Covan, produced by Open Channels in New York City, October‐November, 1984.

Dance

Pooh Kaye and Eccentric Motions at Dance Theatre Workshop, New York City, October 1984.

Sequestered Gestures, Carol Martin, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, December 1984.

Senta Driver's Harry, Emanu‐El Midtown YM‐YWHA, New York City, October 1984.

Marie Chien Noir at the Jerusalem Festival, Israel, Summer 1984.

Film

A Question of Silence, directed by Marlene Gorris, Netherlands. A Quartet Films Release, 1982.

An earlier version of this review, “Ordinary Women Who Kill,” appeared in the New York Native, August 13–26, 1984.

Books

The Diaries of Judith Malina: 1941–1957 by Judith Malina. NY: Grove Press, Inc., 1984. 464 + index. Cloth: $22.50; paper: $11.95.

Women in Motion by Alexa L. Foreman. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1983. 245 pp. + bibliography. Cloth: $19.95.

Women Composers, Conductors, and Musicians of the Twentieth Century by Jane Weiner LePage. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, Inc., Volume I, 1980; Volume II, 1983. 275 pp. and 360 pp. respectively, index. Cloth: $18.50 and $21.50 respectively.

Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen by Linda Dahl. NY: Pantheon Books, 1984. 268 pp. + notes, discography, bibliography, index. Paper: $12.95.

Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey by Sandra B. Lieb. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981. 173 pp. + discography, appendices, notes, bibliography, two indices. Paper: $9.95.

Listings     

IN SEARCH OF PERMANENCY

President Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) into law on November 19, 1997. ASFA is designed to prevent children in foster care from being returned to unsafe homes and to find safe homes for children who are not able to return to their families. Some critics say that ASFA is too extensive and intrusive; others feel it does not go far enough. The author focuses on the practical issues of what ASFA has done so far and how various communities can still use it to ameliorate some of their child welfare problems. She begins with the history of child welfare in the United States, followed by an extensive discussion of ASFA's provisions. The author then addresses criticisms of some of ASFA's key components. A discussion of the ways the states have implemented ASFA follows. The author concludes that ASFA could be a powerful and important tool in aiding the child welfare system.     

Memories of menarche: Age,preparation, and prior knowledge as determinants of initial menstrual experience

The relationships between age at menarche, preparation for menarche, and initial experience of menarche, were assessed in a retrospective questionnaire administered to 97 college-aged women. The more knowledgeable a girl was prior to menarche, the more adequate she perceived her preparation for menarche to have been; and the older she was at the time of menarche, the more likely she was to report a positive initial experience. These data support clinical anecdotes describing initial responses to menarche, and provide information about the factors which can moderate the extent to which menarche is experienced as a traumatic and disruptive event.Portions of this research were presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Hartford, Conn., April 1980.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. Major interests are clinical psychology and personality development.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University. Major interest is cognitive development.