School-based developmental facilitation groups for children of divorce: A preventive intervention.

Abstract

A model of time-limited, school-based groups for children of divorce is presented. Common themes that emerged in groups conducted in three schools suggest that youngsters continue to wrestle with divorce-related conflicts years after the marital disruption. Developmental tasks created by specific post-divorce stresses are described, and multiple brief interventions tied to nodal points in child development are proposed.

A Review of Effectiveness of Group Work with Children of Divorce

“…A study of an 8-week group work program for children of divorce, though indicating favorable attitudes toward the program by the children and their parents, did not show significant changes on two measures and only on four of 25 items on a test of attitudes toward divorce (Kalter, Pickar, & Lesowitz, 1984). Rollercoasters is a group work program designed to help children ages 9 to 12 years address the psychological tasks of children of divorce (Wallerstein, 1983(Wallerstein, , 1990).…”

An evaluation of the efficacy of a preventive intervention for 4th?6th grade urban children of divorce

“…Even so, these early programs stimulated the development of later, more formally evaluated interventions. Kalter, Pickar, & Lesowitz (1984), for example, developed a school-based program for children of divorce that emphasized understanding of feelings, clarifying misconceptions, and a reworking of distressing experiences through displacement activities, within a supportive group environment.…”

Students from divorced and blended families

“…In tackling such issues, group counseling programs have met with varying degrees of success in helping students feel more self-confident, less anxious, less depressed, and more competent in dealing with problems arising from their parents' divorce (Anderson, Kinney, and Gerler, 1984;Crosbie-Burnett and Newcomer, 1990;Gwynn and Brantley, 1987;Kalter, Pickar, and Lesowitz, 1984;Pedro-Carroll and Cowen, 1985;Roseby and Deutsch, 1985;Tedder, Scherman, and Wantz, 1987). These programs have ranged from 4 to 12 weeks in length and have included children from the ages of 6-14.…”