PARENT EDUCATION IN THE DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT |
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| Authors: | Nancy Thoennes Jessica Pearson |
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| Institution: | Jessica Pearson is the director of the Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit research firm. She has conducted numerous demonstration and evaluation projects dealing with a variety of social and legal issues that affect families. She is currently principal investigator for several national projects that examine domestic violence, welfare reform, and child support program developments, as well as initiatives to provide services to noncustodial parents and programs to increase voluntary paternity acknowledgement in hospital settings;. Nancy Theonnes serves as the associate director of the Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit research firm. She is currently working on the National Violence Against Women Survey funded by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has also conducted work on court-based dependency mediation throughout the United States, studies on the effectiveness of programs to alleviate child access and visitation disputes, and an examination of the three major models through which foster care reviews are currently conducted |
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| Abstract: | This multisite assessment of five, court-affiliated parent education programs incorporates information from 3,000 exit surveys by attendees, 602 telephone interviews with willing parents six months later, comparisons with 145 divorcing parents who did not attend a program, and reviews of court activity. Parents report high levels of satisfaction with the programs and credit them with helping to sensitize them to their children's needs and making visitation more successful and enjoyable. Although attendees report better compliance with divorce decrees, comparable proportions of parents in treatment and comparison groups report conflict over child custody and access, and a review of court files shows identical litigation patterns for both groups over a four-year period of time . |
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