Issues Of Divorce Research Articles

Attitudes of Professionals Toward Parenting Programs After Divorce

A survey was conducted regarding the perceptions of professionals regarding their perceptions of parenting needs after divorce. The study took place in a semi-rural high-desert community in western Colorado that did not have a parenting-after-divorce program. Research questions surrounded validity of program, program content, court-mandated issues, and difference of opinion among professionals surveyed. A total of 107 (34.9%) of 303 questionnaires distributed were returned. There was an equal split of the respondents regarding its being court-mandated or voluntary. Results demonstrated that a program focusing on parenting issues of divorce was indicated. Significant differences between professional populations were noted.

Postmodernism and Divorce: Reflections on Gergen’s Notion of the Saturated Self in Relation to Modern Divorce

This article explores Gergen’s concept of the saturated self in relation to issues of divorce in contemporary America. The postmodern metaphor of the saturated self, a self comprising multiple, contradictory potentials, can help therapists who work with individuals and couples struggling with the question of divorce. Therapists can use the ideas presented to help depathologize common experiences with divorce and allow clients to explore alternative understandings of themselves and their world in a way that expands possibilities for being in relationship. Specific techniques for incorporating these ideas into clinical practice are presented.

Women's Ethics in Divorce and Remarriage

Marriage is a very complicated social phenomenon. It is not only one of people being united, but also one of people becoming separated, and being united again. These are what we call the issues of divorce and remarriage. In marriage there are corresponding moral or ethical requirements. Certainly, there needs to be moral and ethical constraints or parameters for divorce and for remarriage, otherwise marital relationships may become abnormal and even pathological.

Will the Real Pro-Family Contestant Please Stand up? Another Look at Families and Pastoral Care

Claims that the contemporary emphasis on the family—often heralded as an exclusive concern of the political and religious right—must not be allowed ownership by any one actor or segment involved in the current culture war dealing with family values. Proposes that at the heart of the family values project is not, as it is often framed, the issues of individualism, divorce, single-mothers, pregnant teens, neglected or problem children, but rather the truly difficult problem of establishing and maintaining genuinely democratic family forms and dynamics. Argues that pastoral caregivers need to reclaim an appropriate space in this contested terrain of THE FAMILY with the pastoral care, counseling, and education's usual commitment to a systemic and compassionate understanding of such complex issues.

The equity of mediated divorce agreements

AbstractEmpirical studies come to contradictory conclusions about the dispute resolution forum women can expect to be most equitable in arrangements associated with separation and divorce. Structured telephone interviews were conducted with 302 divorced individuals who not only mediated their separation and divorce issues but also used other methods such as lawyer negotiation, judicial assistance, and autonomous negotiation. Mediation took place in both public and private arenas. Although mediation does not exacerbate the financial woes of women after divorce any more than any of the other dispute resolution techniques, it may not protect women either.

Matrimonial Bonds: Slavery and Divorce in Nineteenth-Century America

As early as 1848, in the first public meeting on woman's rights, feminists raised the touchy issues of women's marital subjugation and divorce. They complained that the laws of marriage and divorce were framed for the benefit of men and to entrap women within the oppressive institution of marriage. Another controversial claim made at Seneca Falls—that to the ballot—went on to become the great organizing principle for women's campaigns for legal and political reform. But despite the bold beginning, divorce remained a complex and divisive issue for feminists throughout the century. Although legislatures in most states in the mid-nineteenth century were systematically liberalizing divorce laws, they could not lift the social stigma attached to it. Fearful of being branded as anti-marriage or anti-family, or believing in the permanency of marriage, many feminists spoke of divorce reluctantly, and never used their formidable organizing skills to launch a full-scale assault on laws restricting the dissolution of marriage.

Divorce potential and marital stability of adult women sexually abused as children compared to adult women not sexually abused as children.

This study was conducted to determine if significant differences exist between women in marital therapy who had been sexually abused as children and women in marital therapy who had not been sexually abused as children on the parameters of marital satisfaction and divorce potential. The null hypothesis was tested. No differences were found between the two groups. Both groups of women and their husbands experienced moderate marital dissatisfaction. Divorce potential for both groups and their husbands was low. The sexually abused women had significantly higher psychoticism scores on the SCL-90R than the nonabused women, generally representing moderately withdrawn, isolated lifestyle patterns.

Book Review: The Subject of Death in Children's Literature: A Bibliography: Historical Perspective, Works of Fiction — Ages Five through Eight, Works of Fiction — Ages Nine through Twelve, Works of Nonfiction, Development Process, Professional Controversy, Societal Attitudes, a Definitive Study, Relevancy to Students' Needs, Bereavement Support Groups, Personal Response

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsGrace M. BarnettGrace M. Barnett, M.L.S., M.A., NCC, is library media specialist at the Somers Intermediate School, Somers, New York, and a National Certified Counselor. Mrs. Barnett facilitates student support groups dealing with the issues of bereavement and divorce and has presented workshops for educators dealing with self-esteem in children. Mrs. Burnett has a B.S. in Education from St. Thomas Aquinas College, New York, and an M.A. in Counseling from Fairfield University, Connecticut. She resides in Sandy Hook, Connecticut with her husband.

Avoiding traps mediators set for themselves

Reaching agreement in any negotiations that require the services of a media­ tor, but particularly those involving divorce or family issues, is a long, com­ plicated process. The success or failure of such negotiations depends on many factors, including: the disputants' willingness or ability to reach a settle­ ment (Haynes, 1985), power relationships between the disputants (Haynes, 1986), andlor the availability of resources to solve the dispute. One often neglected factor is a hurdle mediators create for themselves-their own behavior and strategies. My purpose here is to identify typical problems caused by the mediator's behavior, and suggest ways to overcome them. Although the case material used to illustrate these ideas derives from family disputes, the stages of medi­ ation process at which these problems occur are similar regardless of context. Thus I believe the ideas presented apply to most mediated negotiations, which generally include the following four stages: 1. An intake session; 2. Data gathering; 3. Definition of the problem; and 4. Bargaining.

Towards an Interdisciplinary Commitment: A Divorce Lawyer Proposes Attorney‐Therapist Marriages or, at the Least, an Affair

A divorce is less likely to seriously traumatize the dissolving family when both the legal and emotional issues of divorce are addressed. Attorney‐therapist teams are proposed as an effective vehicle to help minimize the stress of the divorce experience. Some benefits of an interdisciplinary approach are enumerated as are a number of creative forms of collaboration.

The Family and Religion: Exploring a Changing Relationship

I have a deep personal commitment both to family and to religion. The family has always been for me a source of love, joy, and pleasure, as well as, on occasion, frustration and anger. If at times it has threatened to stifle me in its warm embrace, it has also made possible my pursuit of a wide range of activities, secure in knowledge that there would be people around who would care for my wounds, even if they wouldn't or couldn't catch me before I fell. Thus, I feel with Urie Bronfenbrenner that the relationships in families are juice of life, longings and frustrations and intense loyalties. We get our strength from those relationships, we enjoy them, even painful ones. Of course, we also get some of our problems from them, but power to survive those problems comes from family, too. (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, p. 47). I find also that despite many doubts and crises of faith, I continue to have a religious orientation to life, even a somewhat institutionalized one. I am certainly not same kind of Catholic I was 20 or 30 years ago, nor is Church same. (I include laity in meaning of concept Church.) While I am not optimistic about future of institutional Church, I am sympathetic to its plight. It still seems to be caught in kind of no-win situation so aptly described by Demerath and Hammond 10 years ago (1969). It will be damned if it does attempt to adapt to changing situations, and damned if it doesn't. Demerath and Hammond went on to say that radical changes are difficult to agree upon. They produce short-run discomforts with no long-run guarantees (1969: 171).1 These discomforts (over issues of contraception, abortion and divorce for example) have slowly developed into what may well be an irreconcilable gap between traditional theology espoused by

Semantic Differential Changes Associated with Participation in a Public Lecture Series Describing the Emotional and Behavioral Consequences of Divorce

Sematic differential rating scales were randomly distributed to two independent samples of participants attending a public lecture series on issues of divorce. Concepts associated with divorce, family, and self were rated pre-to-post lecture series. Seven significant conceptual shifts observed in the first sample were crossvalidated in the second sample five months later. The concept, MYSELF, was rated more favorably and stronger after the course. DIVORCE, SEPARATION, and THE PRESENT were all related more positively. FORMER SPOUSE was rated more negatively. CHILDREN were rated more strongly. The observed conceptual/attitudinal changes indicate that a so-called didactic-educational course may have an impact over and beyond the mere acquisition of factual information. Because of the essentially correlational nature of the research design, the precise mechanisms of these replicated changes could not be determined. Questions were raised, in the discussion, as to whether the observed changes reflect more realistic views, or a picture of participants' defensive attempts to cope with the divorce process.

Emotional Aspects of Divorce and Their Effects on the Legal Process

This paper presents a brief picture of the divorce process as seen through the eyes of clinical behavioral scientists. It is extremely important that attorneys who handle divorce cases realize (a) that there are psychological as well as legal factors to the termination of marital contracts and (b) that they attend to these factors as they process these cases. Failure to recognize the psychological aspects in this area of law can lead to a multiplicity of problems and further complicate an already difficult situation. It is not our intention to suggest that lawyers become marriage counselors, but to point out the non-legal issues of divorce which directly affect a divorce action.