Children of Divorced Parents

"Dr. Teyber writes in the mature voice of a seasoned clinician, providing parents with not only his own observations, but a substantial amount of conclusive research regarding the effects of divorce on children, accompanied by realistic, age-appropriate advice for the whole family." _Child Magazine "Will be extremely helpful to any parent going through the process of divorce. It is conceptually sound, easy to read, and has important information for parents, professionals, and anyone who is working with children whose parents are going through divorce." _Hugh McIssac, LCSW, director, Family Court Services, The Superior Court, Los Angeles County "An outstanding book. It reinforces the value of putting children first and acknowledges children's need for both parents during and after the divorce. Teyber clearly describes the stress and pain children experience and explains how best to shield them from the parents' own conflicts. . . . Essential reading. . . ." _David L. Levy, Esq., president, Children's Rights Council "Dr. Teyber covers the importance of parenting sills [in offering] stability and continuity in critical stages of child development following a divorce." _Louis Welch, director, Child Custody Reform Project ". . . should be recommended reading for any parent going through a divorce. Teachers, counselors, therapists, family law judges, and attorneys will find Teyber's book a valuable adjunct to their work." _Benson Schaffer, L.A. County Superior Court (retired), Family Law Mediator Edward Teyber, Ph.D., is professor of psychology and director of the psychology clinic at California State University, San Bernardino. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in clinical psychology from Michigan State University. He is also the author of two counseling textbooks: Interpersonal Process in Psychotherapy: A Relational Approach and coauthor, with Faith McClure, of Casebook in Child and Adolescent Treatment: Cultural and Familial Contexts.

Children of Divorce features excerpts of stories collected from hundreds of young people. The narratives embrace such themes as despair, chaos in the family, and "missing" dads. The volume paints a picture of the pain, the hope, and the resiliency shown by young adults while in the throes of divorce and in the years to follow. These poignant narratives are framed by an analysis of the most recent divorce literature. The book clearly demonstrates the value of storytelling in helping people deal with major loss events in their lives. The authors' hope is that by examining these experiences, we will gain a greater understanding of the effects of divorce and ultimately strengthen relationships in the future. This book challenges the contention that most children will be irretrievably hurt by their parents' divorce. Presenting a mixture of young people's voices demonstrating the great variety of reactions to parental divorce, it shows the strength and resilience many of these young people have learned in surviving the pain surrounding divorce in their families. Emphasis is placed on how hope about the possibilities of having close relationships--as well as a willingness to try to have stronger families in their own adult lives--represent abiding motivations in this sample of young people. Providing an overarching theoretical emphasis on the value of storytelling for people dealing with major losses, the authors hope that this method of stressing the raw input of respondents will make the experiences more vivid and realistic to the reader. Intended for students, practitioners, and scholars interested in divorce in the disciplines of family studies; social, clinical, and developmental psychology; counseling; family and interpersonal communication; sociology, and social work, it is also an ideal supplement for courses on divorce, family studies, and close relationships.

In this volume, mental health professionals pioneer a shift in focus from the treatment of dysfunctional children and adults toward the identification of factors which are found in "resilient" children, or, those who overcome their adverse surrounding and even emerge strengthened. Children from many diverse populations, ranging from stepchildren to developmentally delayed children to children of religious cults, are examined and the elements common to their healthy adjustment identified. The establishment of a model for the recognition of resilience lays the groundwork for primary prevention specialists to develop and implement preventive rather than remedial programs for children designated "at risk."

Child Care

Millions of children in Britain now grow up in stepfamilies, but little is reliably known about their experiences of stepfamily life--or why some of these young people encounter problems in the long run while other flourish. This is a new, pioneering, multidisciplinary study that tracks the lives of fifty children born in 1958, offering unique insights into the long-term effects of stepfamily life in the UK today. It will interest many scholars and students of sociology, social policy, public policy/administration, and psychology.

When their parents divorce, some children falter and others thrive. This book asks why. Is it the custody arrangement? A parent's new partner? Conflict or consistency between the two households? Adolescents after Divorce follows teenagers from 1,100 divorcing families to discover what makes the difference. Focusing on a period beginning four years after the divorce, the authors have the articulate, often insightful help of their subjects in exploring the altered conditions of their lives. These teenagers come from a wide range of backgrounds. Some are functioning well. Some are faring poorly. The authors examine the full variety of situations in which these children find themselves once the initial disruption has passed - whether parents remarry or repartner, how parents relate to each other and to their children, and how life in two homes is integrated. Certain findings emerge - for instance, remarried new partners are better accepted than cohabiting new partners. And when parents' relations areamicable, adolescents in dual custody are less likely than other adolescents to experience loyalty conflicts. The authors also consider the effects of visitation arrangements, The demands made and the goals set within each home, and the emotional closeness of the residential parent to the child. A mine of information on a topic that touches so many Americans, this study will be crucial for researchers, counselors, lawyers, judges, and parents.

Family Transformation Through Divorce and Remarriage is the first book to look thoroughly at the complete divorce-remarriage-stepfamily cycle in the context of demographic data, the legal process and the theoretical framework. For each phase of the cycle, the author describes the stages of development, summarises the relevant research and illustrates the effects on family members with case examples.

Focusing on the kinds of networks that most adequately meet adolescent needs, Stinson conducts thirty in-depth interviews with adolescents and their custodial parents. She divides interviews evenly between those living with biological parents, with divorced mother, and with mother and stepfather. Empirical results are applied to guiding questions: How are adolescent social support networks affected by parental divorce and remarriage? What are the impacts of network size and structure on adolescents' well-being? For researchers and practitioners in adolescent well-being, divorce, and remarriage counseling.

The breakdown of the family has moved in recent years to the forefront of national consciousness. All manner of social ills, from poor academic performance to teenage drug use and gang crime, have been attributed to high divorce rates and the collapse of the traditional two-parent family. Targets of particularly harsh criticism are parents who lose all contact with their children after a divorce. So-called "deadbeat dads" are denounced in political speeches and ridiculed on billboard advertisements; mothers who lose touch with their children are stigmatized as emotionally unstable or lacking maternal instincts. Everyone seems to understand the importance of children being raised by two-parent families and the damage that can occur when one parent loses contact completely. What is significantly less clear is why this loss of contact occurs and what can be done to prevent it. In Out of Touch, Geoffrey Greif explores these issues with clarity, compassion, insight, and an evenhandedness rarely encountered in an arena far more susceptible to acrimonious debate than sympathetic understanding. Setting out to find the reality beneath the catchall categorization of out-of-touch parents as deadbeats, substance abusers, child mistreaters, or criminals, Greif focuses on those parents who tried and, for a vast array of reasons, failed to maintain contact with their children. It is their voices, in a discussion dominated up till now by the custodial parent, that we most need to hear, Greif argues, if we are to uncover ways to avoid such failures in the future. Rather than offering dry statistics and abstract generalizations, Greif lets us hear these voices directly in 26 in-depth interviews with estranged parents and with children caught in the crossfire of painful divorces. Extending over a period of two to ten years, these interviews, and Greif's perceptive analyses of them, reveal the whole spectrum of logistical, emotional, and legal difficulties that keep parents and children apart. From the ordinary problems of visitation rights and child support to the more complex and troubling issues--bitter court battles, accusations of sexual abuse, domestic violence, children rejecting a parent, child kidnapping, and many others--Out of Touch vividly and often heartbreakingly presents all the ways that fathers and mothers, even with the best intentions, can lose contact with their children. But the book does more than tell the stories of failed relationships. Its concluding chapter offers a series of specific and extremely helpful suggestions for families--parents, children, grandparents--who find themselves in danger of complete estrangement. Greif outlines how families can employ support systems, communication skills, mediation, and many other strategies to overcome the most difficult obstacles that occur after a divorce. It is here that the lessons gleaned from the broken relationships of the past become invaluable advice for the future. Informed by fresh perspectives, moving personal accounts, and a clear-sighted approach to a tangled issue, Out of Touch is a timely and deeply important book about both the forces that drive parents and children apart and the understanding that can keep them together.

This timely and thought-provoking book explores how social and family change are colouring the experience of childhood. The book is centred around three major changes: parental employment, family composition and ideology. The authors demonstrate how children's families are transformed in accordance with societal changes in demographic and economic terms, and as a result of the choices parents make in response to these changes. Despite claims that society is becoming increasingly child-centred, this book argues that children still have little influence over the major changes in their lives. This book breaks new ground by researching family change from the child's point of view. Through combinations from childhood experts in Scandinavia, the UK and America, the book shows the importance of studying children's lives in families in order to understand how far children are active agents in contemporary society. Students of childhood studies, sociology, social work and education will find this book essential reading. It will also be of interest to practitioners in the social, child and youth services.