Abstract
The impact of parental divorce on children has recently become an area of primary concern for a variety of professionals in psychology and education. This interdisciplinary consensus has been generated in part by alarming census descriptions of changing adult lifestyles (e.g., Bron-fenbrenner, 1979; Guidubaldi, 1980). For example, recent reports indicate that the divorce ratio has more than doubled from 1970 to 1981 and more than tripled since 1960. Since these figures do not account for those who were divorced and remarried at the time of the survey, they actually underestimate the total incidence of divorce in our society (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1982b). Similarly, the incidence of single-parent child rearing has also increased markedly from 11.9% in 1970 to 20.1% in 1981. Again, these figures do not include those who have previously experienced a single-parent situation but are now living in reconstituted two-parent families. In fact, the Census Bureau estimates that in 1977, 10% of children living with two parents were living in a household with a stepparent. Single-parent families resulting specifically from divorce or separation have increased by 111% since 1970, and 90% of one-parent families are now headed by mothers. However, the percentage of father-custody households has not increased in the past decade (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1979, 1982a, 1982b).
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Guidubaldi, J., Perry, J.D., Cleminshaw, H.K. (1984). The Legacy of Parental Divorce. In: Lahey, B.B., Kazdin, A.E. (eds) Advances in Clinical Child Psychology. Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, vol 7. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9817-2_4
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