Summary
Contents
Subject index
Beyond the Average Divorce provides marriage and family scholars and students a rich depiction of how children and adults of all ages respond to diverse divorce experiences. Rather than emphasizing means and averages in looking at “typical” family reactions to divorce, authors David H. Demo and Mark A. Fine emphasize variability and change over time in the pre-divorce, divorce, and post-divorce process. The book's three parts explore theoretical and methodological tools for studying divorce, the divorce process and its multiple pathways, and future directions in research.
Key Features
- Includes cutting-edge research on how children are affected by multiple transitions in family structure and parenting arrangements during the divorce process
- Covers the most common causes of divorce and how the family environment deteriorates during the years leading up to divorce
- Provides easy-to-understand descriptions and examples of how specific research methods can be used to study divorce
- Offers a dynamic theoretical model of divorce and how it is experienced by family members in a wide variety of family situations
- Discusses policy implications as well as directions for future theoretical, research, and clinical work in this vital area
Beyond the Average Divorce is intended as a core textbook for use in upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses in Family Stress and Divorce, Dysfunctional Families, Sociology of the Family, and Couples, Marriage, and Family Counseling.
Variation and Fluidity in Adult Adjustment to Divorce
Variation and Fluidity in Adult Adjustment to Divorce
Physical separation and legal divorce are emotionally charged events that evoke a range of positive and negative reactions. On one hand, couples typically separate before legal dissolution, and the separation provides a sense of closure and relief. On the other hand, experiences such as living alone, heading a single-parent household, and becoming a nonresidential parent generate feelings of sadness, guilt, shame, loneliness, and distress. In this chapter, we describe the nature, magnitude, and sources of variation in how adults adjust to divorce. We concentrate on aspects of social and emotional adjustment, which have received the bulk of research attention, but we also address variation in financial adjustment, relationships between former ...
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