PATTERNS OF RELITIGATION |
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| Authors: | Jack Arbuthnot Kevin M. Kramer Donald A. Gordon |
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| Affiliation: | Jack Arbuthnot and Donald A. Gordon are both professors of psychology at Ohio University in Athens. In addition, they are codirectors of the nonprofit Centerfor Divorce Education, also in Athens, 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. In addition, DI: Arbuthnot is a divorce and family mediatol;and Dr. Gordon is a child and family clinician.;Kevin M. Kramer is a Ph. D. candidate in psychology at Ohio University and currently is completing his dissertation research on the effectiveness of divorce education programs. As an industrial-organizational psychologist, his interests are human resources and organization development, particularly in selection, training, compensation, and change management. |
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| Abstract: | Two groups of parents were tracked for 2 years following their divorce: a group of 89 who attended a mandatory divorce education class and a comparison group of 23 who did not. The two groups did not differ in any assessed demographic or family characteristics. At the follow-up assessment, the parents who attended the class had relitigated (over all issues) less than half as often than those who had not attended the class (1.61 vs. 3.74). Moreover, rate of relitigation was related to mastery of skills learned in the class. The results are discussed in terms of the needs for outcome evaluation and design of education programs for divorcing parents. |
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