DOES MANDATORY DIVORCE EDUCATION FOR PARENTS WORK? |
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| Authors: | Jack Arbuthnot Donald A Gordon |
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| Institution: | Jack Arbuthnot and Donald A. Gordon are both Professors of Psychology at Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio. In addition, they are Co-Directors of the non-profit Center for Divorce Education, also in Athens, Ohio, which they founded in 1987. Their professional interests are in the development, evaluation, and dissemination of community-based educational programs for families based on the best available empirical research and clinical experience. |
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| Abstract: | In a court-mandated, child-focused class for divorcing parents, parental mastery of skills taught were evaluated both immediately after the class and 6 months later. Parents perceived the classes to be realistic and useful. Skills were effectively learned and were maintained over the evaluation period. Parents reported that they were successful in dramatically lowering exposure of their children to parental conflict. Relative to a comparison group of parents divorcing the year before the classes were initiated, parents completing the class were better able to work through how they would handle difficult child-related situations with their ex-spouses and were willing to let their children spend more time with the other parent. Few gender differences were observed—mothers perceived the class as more realistic; fathers showed greater improvement on some skills. Similarly, interest level in further training was not predictive of class benefits, suggesting that enthusiasm for parenting training is probably not essential. |
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