Online Divorce Education for Separating/Divorcing Parents

描述（由申请人提供）：在美国，每年约有2%的已婚夫妇离婚（Amato和欧文，2006）。这些离婚中有一半以上涉及未成年子女，每年有100多万儿童经历父母离婚。虽然大多数父母离婚的孩子进入成年后都能正常适应，但高达30%的孩子在成年后会出现社会和心理问题（Amato，2003）。这些问题包括使用大麻、酒精、香烟和其他非法物质的可能性增加（Neher和Short，1998年; Suh，Schutz和Johanson，1996年）。SAMHSA和NIDA支持的研究已经确定了许多与家庭相关的因素，这些因素预测了药物滥用风险的增加，包括父母的高冲突和父母参与的低水平（Guo et al.，2002; Hawkins，Catalano，and米勒，1992; Office of National Drug Control Policy，n.d; Robertson，大卫，and Rao，2003）.因此，药物使用预防和干预计划的关键目标包括减少父母冲突和增加父母参与（Guo等人，2002年）。这些目标与加强儿童对离婚的适应以及“中间儿童”（CIM）的目标和内容有关，CIM是一个针对离婚/分居父母的循证方案。该项目的主要目的是启动和评价在线社区信息管理的英文和西班牙文版本，目前这是一种集体干预。对CIM集团形式的研究表明，它在减少父母冲突、改善父母沟通、减少儿童接触父母冲突、降低法律的再诉讼率和便利非居住父母接触儿童方面是成功的（Arbuthnot和Gordon，1995年，1996年; Arbuthnot、克雷默和Gordon，1997年）。第一阶段将审查一个廉价、容易获得的在线程序的可行性，该程序对父母来说是有吸引力的、可理解的和有用的;测试使用在线措施来记录父母对与离婚调整和避免药物滥用有关的因素的知识的变化;并确定这种干预在多大程度上减少了报告的父母冲突，增加了父母的参与，并增加父母与孩子就物质使用问题进行对话的主动性。为了实现这些目标，美国农村县的父母将被分配到CIM组或CIM在线，并被邀请参加研究。通过开发和推出CIM在线，长期目标是为家长和专业人士提供更多的访问这个程序。项目叙述：在分居和离婚期间，儿童往往面临父母冲突增加和父母参与减少的情况，使他们更有可能滥用药物以及出现社会和心理问题。该项目将评估在线版“中间儿童”的可行性，这是一种基于技能的干预措施，已被证明可有效减少父母冲突，促进父母参与子女事务，以解决分居/离婚父母的这些因素。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Each year about 2 percent of currently married couples divorce in the United States (Amato and Irving, 2006). With just over half of these divorces involving minor children, more than 1 million children annually experience parental divorce. While most children whose parents divorce enter adulthood within normal ranges of adjustment, up to 30 percent exhibit social and psychological problems into adulthood (Amato, 2003). These problems include an increased likelihood of using marijuana, alcohol, cigarettes and other illicit substances (Neher and Short, 1998; Suh, Schutz, and Johanson, 1996). SAMHSA- and NIDA- supported studies have pinpointed many family-related factors that predict increased risk of substance abuse, including high parental conflict and low levels of parental involvement (Guo et al., 2002; Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller, 1992; Office of National Drug Control Policy, n.d; Robertson, David, and Rao, 2003). Thus, key targets for drug-use prevention and intervention programs include reducing parental conflict and increasing parental involvement (Guo et al., 2002). These targets parallel factors associated with enhancing children's adjustment to divorce and goals and content of Children in the Middle (CIM), an evidence-based program for divorcing/separating parents. The primary aim of this project is to launch and evaluate on-line English and Spanish versions of CIM, currently a group intervention. Studies on CIM Group format indicate that it is successful in reducing parental conflict, improving parental communication, reducing child exposure to parental conflict, reducing the rate of legal re-litigation, and facilitating non-residential parental access to children (Arbuthnot and Gordon, 1995, 1996; Arbuthnot, Kramer, and Gordon, 1997). Phase I will examine the feasibility of an inexpensive, easily accessible online program to be appealing, comprehensible, and useful to parents; to test the use of online measures to document changes in parents' knowledge of factors associated with divorce adjustment and avoidance of substance abuse; and to determine the extent to which this intervention reduces reported parental conflict, increases parental involvement, and increases parents' initiation of conversations about substance use with their children. To accomplish these goals parents in a rural US county will be assigned to either CIM Group or CIM Online and invited to participate in the study. By developing and launching CIM Online the long- term goal is to provide parents and professionals greater access to this program. Project Narrative: During separation and divorce, children often are exposed to increased parental conflict and decreased parental involvement, placing them at increased risk of substance abuse and social and psychological problems. This project will evaluate the feasibility of an online version of Children in the Middle, a skills-based intervention that has been shown to effectively reduce parental conflict and promote parental involvement with children, to address these factors for separating/divorcing parents.