An evaluation of the post-divorce adjustment of counselled and non-counselled children.

This study is a small scale naturalistic evaluation of an innovative counselling service for children of divorce. Two main research questions are addressed. Firstly, are the children in receipt of counselling different from children of divorce who have not received counselling? Secondly, was the counselling service effective? A group of non-counselled children (n=34) were compared with the counselled children (n=24) in order to establish whether the children differed in terms of their post-divorce adjustment. Key differences were found; the counselled children generally had lower levels of self-esteem and displayed more dysfunctional perceptions of their parent's divorce (as measured by the Culture-free Self-Esteem Inventory (SEi) and the Children's Perceptions of Parental Divorce [CPPD] scale). Possible factors associated with this poorer post-divorce adjustment of the counselled children were identified from the responses to semi-structured interviews: four times as many counselled children experienced multiple losses or stresses at or around the time of their parent's separation. They also were characterised as experiencing deteriorations in their relationships with their parents since the separation. Higher levels of inter-parental conflict and parenting problems were found in the counselled group. In terms of the effectiveness of the counselling service, there was evidence that the self-esteem levels of the counselled children improved and their perceptions of their parent's divorce became healthier over the course of counselling. Whether these improvements can be attributed to the effects of counselling is beyond the scope of this small scale naturalistic study. Half of the children and the custodial mothers were satisfied with the outcomes of counselling. Only one-third of the counselled cases were perceived to have been successful by the counsellor. Characteristics of these 'successful' cases included high parental motivation and the parents being involved in counselling themselves. 'Unsuccessful' cases, according to the counsellor, were characterised by a lack of motivation on the part of the parents, the parent's problems impeding the resolution of the children's problems, high levels of inter-parental conflict and premature termination of the counselling. Diagnostic criteria for identifying children in need of counselling as well as implications for the practice of counselling children of divorce have been outlined.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Robert Gordon University

Year dc:date.issued

1994

Author dc:creator

• McConnell, Ruth Anne

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• J. Lishman, D.E.H. Cox and S. Wilcock

• Children of divorce
• Counselling effectiveness
• Post-divorce adjustment
• Self-esteem
• Parental conflict
• Counselling outcomes
• Naturalistic study

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:2807481
https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-2807481

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:2807481