The Effectiveness of a Community Group Intervention Program on Adjustment to Separation and Divorce

Abstract

This study explores adjustment to separation and divorce and the effects of participating in a small regional community agency group intervention program. Prior to participation in group intervention, participants were interviewed for suitability and invited to complete the pre-intervention questionnaires comprising demographics, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Social Support Appraisal Scale and the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale. Of the forty-four participants that started the program, twenty females and ten males completed the group intervention program. Following completion, the post-intervention questionnaires were administered to participants. Some differences in adjustment to separation and divorce were noted for men and women pre-intervention on the Social Support Appraisal Scale. However, no gender differences were noted on the adjustment scales post-intervention. Overall, the results indicate that participants made significant adjustment gains following participation on all adjustment scales. This result implies there are short-term Dragica Vukalovich, MS, is Psychologist (private practice) in Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia.Nerina Caltabiano, PhD, is Senior Lecturer,

Parents Forever: An Assessment of the Perceived Value of a Brief Divorce Education Program

“…Only gender and current relationship status were examined as demographic influences, and neither of these variables changed how participants perceived the value of the program or gained knowledge through their participation. This is consistent with previous research on divorce education (Arbuthnot & Gordon, 1996;Feng & Fine, 2000;Vukalovich & Caltabiano, 2008). Important participatory variables that were included in the analysis were mandatory versus nonmandatory attendance, level of motivation to participate, barriers to participation (timing, distance, cost), and referral source.…”

Breakup Adjustment in Young Adulthood

“…The FDAS is a 100-item, Likert-type scale developed by Fisher (1976) to measure a person's emotional/social adjustment to divorce and breakup. Koenig-Kellas and Masunov (2003) and Vukalovich and Caltabiano (2008) used the FDAS to assess the breakup adjustment of nonmarried university students. Similarly, we used the FDAS with a sample of nonmarried university students instead of a sample of divorced individuals.…”

Are interventions supporting separated parents father inclusive? Insights and challenges from a review of programme implementation and impact

“…Each intervention and its related publications were read by both reviewers separately and then discussed and cross‐referenced together. Six articles were excluded because they were general studies or theoretical papers on families after divorce and separation (Sbarra & Emery ; DeGarmo et al ; Vukalovich & Caltabiano ; Malcore et al ; Brewster et al ; Gordon et al ) and three because they reported on interventions supporting fatherhood more generally (Cornille et al ; Gearing et al ; Cowan et al ).…”