Parent Education for the Divorcing Family

Our goal is to develop, produce, and evaluate a media-based education program for divorcingparents. The program is intended for use by divorce mediators, parent educators, and other mentalhealth professionals. The program will motivate parents to make a successful transition from parentto co-parent. Parents will be given essential knowledge and skills to help manage children's behaviorand to reduce parent conflict during and following divorce. A video, produced in Phase I, will showdramatized portraits of divorcing families who experience a variety of challenging parenting situations.The video will help parents to understand the relationship between how they handle conflict and theirchildren's psychological adjustment. The video-based curriculum produced in Phase I will be tested with120 parents in education groups who have been referred through the court system for divorce mediation.In phase II, materials will be expanded to include applications of social skills in a variety of situations.Judges, lawyers, mediators and other mental health professionals who work with divorcing parents arecalling for more educational activities and supportive materials to help reduce the adverse impact ofdivorce on children.