Children and divorce: a review

Judith S. Wallerstein, Ph.D., is Prin cipal Investigator, Children of Divorce Project, Marin Community Mental Health Center, Marin County, Cali fornia, and is on leave as Lecturer, School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley. At present she is a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California. Joan B. Kelly, Ph.D., is Co-Principal Investigator, Children of Divorce Project, Marin Community Mental Health Center, and is in private practice in Marin County. A different version of this article will appear in Basic Handbook of Child Psychiatry, Vol. 4, edited by Joseph Noshpitz et al., to be issued by Basic Books. Divorcing couples and their chilwas 3Vi years; 2Vi years was the aver dren constitute a rapidly increasing age time required by men (Waller population whose special needs have stein and Kelly, in press), been insufficiently recognized, infreThus, for many children, the pro quently studied, and poorly served, cess of divorce is characterized by Thus far, only a fraction of the proinitial loss and turmoil, followed by liferating studies focusing on divorce several years of relative instability in (Sell, 1977), have examined its imwhich the attention received by them pact on children, and interventions from their parents fluctuates. The de specifically addressing the needs of creasing availability of supportive so children whose parents are divorcing cial structures, the weakening of ex have been developed slowly. As a contended-family ties, and the geographic sequence, too little is known of the relocation that often follows in the child's experience during divorce, of wake of divorce all contribute to the the extent to which children of distress that is experienced by the vorced parents are at risk of developchild. ing emotional or psychological diffiChildren are participants affected culties, or whether the effects of a by at least four related stages or situa marital split that are not immediately tions in the process of divorce. These visible in children are likely to appear are the following; (1) the predivorce at a later developmental stage. family, (2) the disruptive process of In their clinical work with children divorce itself, including the events of divorce, practitioners have tended leading up to and surrounding the par to rely on existing knowledge regardents' decision to separate, and the ing separation, loss, and mourning, transition period immediately follow However, although similar in certain ing, (3) the changed social, economic, aspects to other experiences of loss, and psychological realities of being divorce departs from these experiences reared in a family in which divorce significantly in both its course and outhas occurred, and (4) the alterations come. The divorce-induced changes in in the parent-child relationship that the child's relationship with his or her take place after the marital breakup, parents are clearly distinguishable A fifth situation for many children is from changes taking place in families the remarriage of one or both parents, following a death or instances of abannot infrequently to a partner with chil donment (Neubauer, I960; Tessman, dren of his or her own. Living through 1977). each of these situations and experi For the family containing children, enceS may have short-term or endur divorce is a multifaceted, extended ing consequences. Each has the po process that alters but does not end tential to interfere with the child's the relationships existing among famdevelopment, just as each represents ily members (Despert, 1953; Bohanan opportunity for growth for the nan, 1970; Weiss, 1975; Westman et child. The duration of stress over time, al„ 1970). Furthermore, the disruption as well as the rhythm and degree of caused by divorce is often accompanchange, will vary for each child and ied by primitive angers and impulsive within each family, acts on the part of a couple that may not have been part of their behavior or manner of interacting before their breakup. The intrapsychic distress and Between 1966 and 1976, the rate of intrafamilial disequilibrium attendant divorce in the United States increased on a divorce frequently extend over by 113 percent. Whereas in 1966 one two years or more (Hetherington, Cox, divorce was granted for every four and Cox, 1976). In a study that was marriages performed, by 1976 the conducted by the present authors and ratio had changed to one divorce for that will be described in this article, every two marriages. Indications exist the average length of time required by that this spiraling increase in the di women to reestablish a sense of stabilvorce rate has recently begun to slow ity in their lives after being divorced down. Nevertheless, nearly one mil OVERALL PERSPECTIVE