Program Profile: The Court Care Center for Divorcing Families

Do Parent Education Programs Promote Healthy Postdivorce Parenting? Critical Distinctions and a Review of the Evidence

“…This program did not report positive program effects to improve amount of nonresidential parent‐child contact. The remaining evaluations assessed either relitigation (which often focuses on amount of parenting time, Arbuthnot, et al., 1997; Kramer & Kowal, 1998; Homrich, Glover, & White, 2004) or parents' knowledge of new alternatives to divorce‐related litigation. Only three studies (Kramer & Kowal, 1998; Arbuthnot et al., 1997; Criddle et al., 2003) reported that program participants had lower rates of divorce‐related relitigation than those who did not participate in the program.…”

“…McKenry et al., 1999; Shifflett & Cummings, 1999), while other programs (e.g., McClure, 2002; Kramer & Kowal, 1998) were evaluated using court records of divorce‐related relitigation. Five of these programs reported positive findings, such that parents either reported decreased interparental conflict (Shifflett & Cummings, 1999; Homrich, Glover, & White, 2004) or decreased relitigation (Arbuthnot et al., 1997; Criddle et al., 2003; Kramer & Kowal, 1998). However, limitations in the design of these evaluations (i.e., small sample sizes, failure to describe how the program and control groups were selected, non‐equivalent control groups that might plausibly differ on the outcome variable) preclude drawing confident conclusions concerning whether the observed effects were due to the program.…”

Integrating Technology for Distance Parenting Coordination: Best Practices and Ethical Considerations

“…Termination, whether planned or not, may be a result of a unilateral decision of the parenting coordinator based on their views of the case progress, or a mutual decision by parents, but it is not always based on success. In order to help high-conflict parents readjust their relationship from one of intimacy and then conflict to the ''business'' of cooperative co-parenting, interventions have broadened to include counseling interventions (e.g., co-parental counseling), Family Court-referred evaluations (e.g., custody evaluation and social investigations), psycho-educational group program (e.g., Focus on the Children), and now to approaches that include creative and innovative uses of technology (Homrich et al, 2004;Kelly, 2006 (Wikipedia, n.d.). The PSTN usually has a monthly fee based on the desired calling plan and, similar to traditional landline telephone companies, will include 911 service and voicemail along with other calling features.…”

“…The impact of high conflict on children resonates quite intensely as they posses fewer coping mechanisms or outlets for handling their stress than adults (Johnston & Roseby, 1997). Children suffer from reduced parenting, disrupted parent-child relationships, and ineffective co-parenting frequently resulting from an absence of caring and attention from parents who either may have returned to school or work to improve their financial situation or who may now reside outside the marital home (Homrich et al, 2004;Wallerstein, Lewis, & Blakeslee, 2000). In the absence (physical and=or emotional) of their parents, children may assume exhausting and taxing adult roles, including caring for younger siblings, housekeeping, or trying to act as a friend for their parent.…”

“…For high-conflict parents, parenting coordination acts as an alternative to traditional dispute resolution (i.e., mediation, arbitration) and has evolved independently in multiple judicial circuits, a development which has been recognized by the courts (Coates, Deutsch, Starnes, Sullivan, & Sydlik, 2003). Focus on the Children-Orlando, an eight-week group intervention program for high conflict and divorced parents (Homrich, Glover, & White, 2004) defines high-conflict (post-separation or post-divorce), as ''one or both parents' (a) ongoing intense legal conflict; (b) unresolved conflict; (c) putting their child(ren) in the middle of conflict; (d) undermining and sabotaging the other's caretaker role; (e) blaming and attempting to punish the other; (f) having a 'win-lose' view that often disregards the welfare of the child(ren); (g) gradually intensifying behavioral patterns that create anxiety, stress, and loyalty binds; (h) making physical threats; and (i) exhibiting intermittent violence'' (p. 4). Homrich et al asserted that the reports detailing the numbers of families in conflict may be underestimated (suggesting that the percentages of families in high conflict is higher) because some couples never married or because second marriage high-conflict families were not surveyed as consistently as first-time divorced families.…”