Advancing Co-parenting Education: Toward a Foundation for Supporting Positive Post-Divorce Adjustment
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Advancing Co-parenting Education: Toward a Foundation for Supporting Positive Post-Divorce Adjustment Anthony J. Ferraro1 • Thallia Malespin1 • Karen Oehme1 • Malia Bruker1 Andy Opel1
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Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract The nature and quality of parents’ post-divorce relationships are linked with children’s emotional and behavioral wellbeing. As such, many states require that divorcing parents participate in coparenting education designed to decrease parental conflict and increase cooperation; yet, few of these courses are rigorously evaluated. A new program entitled Successful Co-parenting After Divorce (coparenting.fsu.edu) was created to be a freely accessible, online divorce education program for parents of minor children. The program was launched in Florida, but is available nationally for parents, as well as social workers, mental health professionals, and lawyers who assist parents during the divorce process. Description of the training, including innovations in the use of video and technology is provided. An evaluation plan, which includes assessment of co-parenting attitudes and behaviors, mental health symptomology, and childhood trauma is detailed. Future directions for the implementation of the program are discussed. In addition, description of a new measure to assess post-divorce co-parenting behaviors is provided. Keywords Divorce Divorce Education Co-parenting Evaluation
& Anthony J. Ferraro [email protected] 1
Florida State University, 120 Convocation Way (Mail Code: 1491), Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
Introduction Nearly one out of every two marriages today ends in divorce and many divorcing families include minor children (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). As early as the 1970s several states sought methods to improve the access of children to both parents post-divorce; this mission was purposeful in the hope of alleviating some of the trauma associated with divorce. The most significant development in modern child custody law has been an ongoing national and worldwide trend toward increased involvement by both parents in the lives of their children after divorce (DiFonzo, 2014). Today, most states formally recognize in statute or code the importance that both parents have in their children’s lives. The legal terminology used to describe post-divorce parenting is shifting to encourage a more collaborative approach to the post-divorce family. For example, the term ‘‘parenting time’’ is being adopted by many states to reflect a shift away from the term custody and to reflect a shared parenting approach.
Co-parenting After Divorce Current research suggests that continued involvement of both parents following a divorce is beneficial to the children involved and in contrast, the absence of parents from the lives of their children can have a deleterious effect on children’s well-being. Following divorce, if both parents desire to stay involved in the lives of their children, they must continue to interact with each other and mutually raise the child or c
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