Changing Perspectives on Children's Adjustment Following Divorce

There have been substantial changes over time in scientific and public perspectives regarding children's adjustment to divorce in the US. Decades of divorce research have created a more complex and nuanced understanding of how divorce impacts children and adolescents. The stressors and risks which divorce presents for children, the resiliency demonstrated by the majority of children, and protective factors which are associated with better adjustment following divorce are described, and distinctions drawn between painful memories and psychopathology. This more differentiated body of research is helpful in policy formation and for educating divorced parents about known risk factors for their children and what protective behaviors may enhance their children's longer-term adjustment.