Helping Kids Cope with Divorce/Separation

The Background

Over 1.1 million children experience parental divorce each year, and over 40% of children will experience parental divorce at some point during childhood. While these statistics are high, they grossly underestimate the number of children experiencing a parental divorce/separation because the statistics do not include children experiencing family dissolution with unmarried parents.

The good news is - although divorce and separation is often hard for families, most children are reasonably resilient! However, research indicates that about 25% of these kids struggle with emotional, social, academic, and/or behavioral problems. Given the high rates of divorce and the substantial number of kids who experience difficulties across areas of their life - psychological research is needed to figure out how to best help these kids cope and heal. 

The Project

The Internet-delivered 5-week program, Children of Divorce - Coping with Divorce, was designed to do just that. Over the course of the program, kids learn valuable skills, like how to choose positive coping techniques and how to deal with hurtful thoughts, such as "this is all my fault." We have preliminary evidence that this program works to improve coping skills and reduce mental health problems. However, more research is needed to figure out how this program works, when change occurs, who it works for, and how long the effects last. The current study is designed to find out if this program works for kids from high-conflict families, as conflict is one of the strongest predictors of poor adjustment. It will also include kids whose parents have never been married. Importantly, we will follow these kids closely over the course of 5 weeks - and check in with them afterward - to make sure the skills they learn work and keep working. 

You can check out the program for yourself - there is a preview available here: http://familytransitions-ptw.com/CoDCoD/parents/index.html.

You can help!

Please consider donating to this study so you can make a difference in the life of a child experiencing high-conflict divorce and contribute to science so we can better help these kids in the future. The money will be used to reward the kids for learning new skills in the online program and compensate both kids and parent for the time it takes to complete the research measures.