Children of Divorce

According respect to both prevailing models of divorce-as inevitably disastrous and as potentially challenging, even growth-producing-Dr. Twaite and his colleagues undertake a systematic and critical review of the literature on the differential psychosocial adjustment of children after a divorce. They address studies in ten predictor domains, some expectable (age, gender, custody arrangements), some less conventional, before advancing a predictor of their own: the effectiveness of parenting behavior (custodial, non-custodial, and step-) as experienced by the child. Finally, they proffer correctives, substantive and procedural, for future investigations, including recognition of the dynamics among the variables and the need to control for mediating factors in analyzing results. This is a monumental collection in the best tradition of social science research-thorough, responsible, accessible, and of course timely