Parenting Through Divorce: Low-Cost, Innovative Training

描述（由申请人提供）：离婚是一个严重的公共卫生问题。超过50%的婚姻以离婚告终，由此产生的家庭压力导致了孩子的不适应。证据很清楚，为父母提供高质量的离婚父母教育可以减轻对孩子的负面影响。尽管父母在保护孩子方面发挥着关键作用，但许多人对这项任务准备不足。现有的离婚父母教育项目是不够的。近60%的课程是在一次小组会议中进行的，几乎没有机会发展持久的技能。此外，压力过大的离婚父母在参加集体培训方面面临很大障碍。目前的大多数项目都没有针对能够缓解离婚负面影响的变量，而且很多项目对父亲来说都是遥不可及的。有必要为离婚的父母提供可获得的、以技能为基础的、理论上合理的培训。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Divorce is a serious public health problem. Over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, generating family stressors that contribute to maladaptive child adjustment. The evidence is clear that providing parents with quality divorce parent education can mitigate the negative effects on children. Despite parents' key role in protecting children, many are ill-prepared for the task. Available divorce parent education programs are insufficient. Nearly 60 percent take place in one group session, leaving little opportunity for the development of lasting skills. Moreover, stressed divorcing parents face substantial barriers to attending group-based training. Most current programs do not target the variables known to buffer the negative effects of divorce and many are inaccessible to fathers. There is a need for accessible, skill-based theoretically sound, training for divorcing mothers and fathers. Self-instructional parenting programs offer a promising alternative for divorcing parents. They overcome barriers to attendance at parenting groups, and have shown promising effects in increasing parents' knowledge, efficacy, and skills. Little attention has been paid, however, to the potential value of low-cost, self-administered, interactive multimedia approaches for divorcing parents. The central aim of this project is to develop and evaluate an innovative program uniquely tailored to meet the needs of mothers and fathers during the divorce transition. If the aims are achieved, the program will provide a resilience resource to bolster parental factors known to moderate the effects of risk factors on child outcomes, thus filling a significant public health need. The program will be a self-instructional, menu-driven, online curriculum containing eight media-led lessons with engaging, realistic vignettes; exercises for self-reflection, goal-setting, and skill-building; and a managed web community for parents to share information and experiences, and access links to resources on the World Wide Web. In Phase I, we developed the first program and set up a web community room with input from divorcing mothers and fathers, the professionals who work with them, and our program consultants. We evaluated feasibility of the program by conducting a pilot study with mothers and fathers, and established the acceptability of the program with an advisory panel of professionals who specialize in the field of divorce parent education. The results of the evaluation were encouraging: parents reported significantly less conflict from pre to post and we found a significant increase in parents' sense of efficacy in using their newly learned skills and in their behavioral intentions to use them. Moreover, social validity data from parents and professionals indicate that participants found the website easy to access and navigate, the web content useful and easy to understand, and they expressed that they were able to complete tasks efficiently. We propose to expand and evaluate the program in Phase II and to conduct an experimental randomized trial of the theory-based intervention with 318 divorcing parents. PROJECT NARRATIVE Divorce is a serious public health problem. Over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, generating family stressors that contribute to maladaptive child adjustment. This project addresses expert consensus that there is a need for accessible, theoretically sound, skill-based training for divorcing mothers and fathers.