Children of Divorce: Empirical Evaluation of a Group-Treatment Program

We examined the effects of a group-based therapeutic program for children of divorce. Thirty-one 7- to 14-year-olds whose parents were recently divorced were randomly assigned to treatment or waiting-list control conditions. Treatment consisted of a six-session group psychotherapy program focused on identification of feelings, communication skills, and anger management training. Although the first five sessions were entirely child-centered, the final meeting included both children and parents. Therapeutic effects were evaluated from pretreatment to posttreatment via child, parent, and teacher measures. Results indicated significant experimental group improvement but only on a teacher measure of child problem behavior. The results are discussed with regard to expectancy, multimethod assessment, and implications for future research on treatment programs for children of divorce.