Lawyer-client relationship in divorce proceedings: development and validation of a new instrument.

Introduction: This study is based on the paradigm of collaborative law and the current absence of instruments that evaluate the lawyer-client relationship as a function of the needs of the family system. The objective was to construct and validate an instrument, conceptualizing the lawyer-client relationship as a helping relationship. Method: Two groups of experts and 239 parents (58% mothers and 42% fathers), users of Family Visitation Centers, participated in the study. The content, construct, and criterion validity of the instrument, as well as its invariance for both parents, were analyzed. Results: The resulting 12-item instrument has been shown to have a two-dimensional structure, invariant for both parents, with high psychometric solidity. Discussion: The LCR scale seems to be a valuable and effective measure for use in a legal context, with important correlations with the parents' psychological well-being, leading to a promising and relevant instrument for the holistic approach to the divorce process.

Discrepancies in parents' perceptions of adult children's well-being: evidence from mother-father-child triads.

Most studies of discrepancies in parents' reports about children's psychological problems address younger children and psychological problems. The current contribution shifts the focus to adult children and to well-being. In adult intergenerational relationships, knowledge of children's well-being is more uncertain and there is more room for disagreements to arise, especially in the context of divorce. We analyzed Dutch multi-actor survey data, using a sample of triads of adult children, fathers, and mothers (N = 1,440). Two hypotheses were tested about the origins of discrepancies using structural equation models in which child well-being reports were included of parents and self-reports of children. The analyses supported the notion of relational specificity: when parents have a closer and more harmonious relationship with the child, they evaluate the child more positively than the other parent, after controlling for adult children's self-reports of well-being. Qualified support was obtained for the depression-distortion hypothesis, with mothers who have higher well-being themselves being more positive about the child. Discrepancies were larger among separated parents than among married parents and parent-stepparent combinations. The conclusion is that parents do not always have similar views of adult children's well-being and that disagreements are systematic, with bias stemming from the informant and the relationship.

The Eye of the Beholder: Attitudes toward divorced parents and perception of children's happiness in Peru and Spain.

Studies of divorce's effects on children have been oriented toward the parents' characteristics, ignoring their extended families. In the current study we collected data from 414 participants, both divorced parents and the children's extended families in Peru (155) and Spain (259). Participants completed a questionnaire on attitudes toward the parents, and the Short Dark Tetrad questionnaire. Multivariate tests were conducted on participants' responses, showing that negative attitudes toward parents are not very strong but that attitudes toward fathers are more negative than attitudes toward mothers. Custodial parents are perceived less negatively, and parents who share custody are perceived the least negatively. Extended family members hold more negative attitudes against parents than the parents themselves. Mothers have significantly more negative attitudes toward fathers than the fathers towards mothers. Dark traits are a significant predictor of negative attitudes toward the mother but not toward the father. The perception of unhappiness in the child was predicted by negative attitudes toward the parents. Non-parents tend to evaluate both parents more negatively compared to parents' mutual perceptions. There was an effect on dark traits, negative attitudes against parents, and perception of unhappiness in the child. Peruvians scored significantly higher in all variables.

Daily and Half-yearly Associations between Boundary Diffusion and Parent-adolescent Relationship Quality after Divorce.

Boundary diffusion is a particular risk after divorce and has been associated with adolescents' adjustment problems. Yet, its potential impact on parent-adolescent relationship quality is less straightforward, as previous findings support both an alienation and conflict perspective. Therefore these associations (daily and half-yearly) were examined in recently divorced families, addressing both within-dyad changes and between-dyad differences. Data were collected among a sample of N = 133 (pre)adolescents (Mage = 11.76; 51.5% boys) from 76 divorced families, using a measurement burst design: Every six months, 14 consecutive days of daily diaries were collected, for 5 waves. Between dyads, adolescents who experienced more boundary diffusion than others, also reported more conflict with both their parents. Within dyads, when adolescents experienced more boundary diffusion than usual by one of their parents (actor), warmth decreased and conflict increased between this parent and the adolescent, that same and the following day. Adolescents also engaged in more conflict with the other parent that day. These findings mostly supported the conflict perspective: Post-divorce boundary diffusion appears to be a general risk factor for parent-adolescent conflict with both parents, and from day-to-day boundary diffusion was linked to a deteriorated parent-adolescent relationship quality, especially with the parent that triangulated or parentified them. There were no significant long-term associations, nor did any moderator (age, gender, living arrangement) explain heterogeneity in effects.

Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce in Sweden, 1920-2015.

Many studies demonstrate an intergenerational transmission of divorce with a focus primarily on more recent decades; however, the extent to which this relationship is deeply rooted or has changed over time remains unclear. Explanations, including sociodemographic and interpersonal factors, have been offered as links between parental divorce and the stability of offspring's marriage. We use individual-level longitudinal data from the Scanian Economic-Demographic Database to estimate the intergenerational transmission of divorce among first marriages in Sweden over the period 1920-2015. Our investigation focuses on the correlation between parental divorce and offspring's divorce during the transition from a low- to a high-divorce regime. Findings reveal surprising stability in the transmission despite fundamental societal change over the years. Notably, the risk of divorce is highest when either the wife or both spouses have experienced parental divorce. Moreover, the transmission of divorce across time appears to be stronger and more stable for women than for men. These results suggest the intergenerational transmission of divorce is part of the divorce transition and highlight the role of women's independence in this intricate but not yet fully understood process.

Risk of relationship separation in men with Peyronie's disease in a matched Swedish cohort.

Peyronie's disease (PD) has detrimental effects on the quality of life, mental health, sexual functioning and several other aspects that increase the risk of relationship problems. However, no study to date has assessed the risk of relationship separation in med with PD. Herein, we utilized data from Swedish national registers to examine the risk of relationship separation in men with PD. We conducted a matched cohort study on men born 1933-1992, followed from 1997 to 2013. PD was defined as a physician-assigned diagnosis according to the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth version. Each man with PD (n = 8020) was matched with 10 comparison men. We defined relationship separation as (1) ever separated, and (2) separation rate. We used log-linear regression to estimate the risk ratio, and rate ratio of relationship separation. We adjusted for matching variables (birth year and country of birth), and an indicator of each follow-up year. We found that men with PD had a 13% increased risk of relationship separation (risk ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08-1.17). The rate of relationship separation events, measured on a yearly basis, was increased by 18% (rate ratio 1.18, CI 1.12-1.24), and remained similar when adjusting for follow-up year and socio-economic status.

Can Online Parent Education Meet the Needs of the Courts and Improve the Well-Being of Children? The Critical Roles of Goal, Program, and Evidence Alignment.

Parent education in family courts can significantly impact children's well-being after divorce if programs are (1) widely accessible, (2) acceptable to parents, (3) feasible to implement by courts, and (4) have evidence of effectiveness in improving key outcomes for children. In light of recently raised concerns about whether court-ordered/court-mandated parent education is justified; it is critical to identify effective parent education programs. Online parent education programs have the potential to be widely accessible, acceptable to parents and courts, and effectively promote children's well-being. However, few effective online parent education programs are being widely adopted by family courts. There is some controversy about whether online parent education meets the needs of family courts in being cost-effective programs that offer ways to hold parents accountable for their participation. We articulate the wide array of goals for parent education programs and present a framework to identify and select programs that meet specific goals. We discuss access, cost, evidence of effectiveness, acceptability, credibility, and compliance tracking. We highlight two online parent education programs to illustrate differences in contexts and goals and to show that online programs have great potential to be effective in accomplishing goals valued by the courts.

It got me thinking: The impact of participating in a divorce decision-making interview.

Although there is literature documenting the reasons for and outcomes of divorce, there is limited research about the divorce decision-making process. Researchers with the National Divorce Decision-Making Project interviewed (n = 30) people in the process of making a divorce decision. One year later they conducted a second interview (n = 22) with the same sample to track any changes in participants' divorce ideation. The current study reports on the results of a thematic analysis of participants' responses to the final question, "How did the initial interview impact your thinking about the future of your marriage?" Three salient themes emerged from the data: (1) talking got me thinking, (2) thinking got me acting, and (3) the conversation was (surprisingly) therapeutic. The authors highlight possible clinical implications and directions for future research.

Associations of parental divorce with student mental health and academic outcomes: A quantitative study in rural China.

BACKGROUND: This paper examines the prevalence, correlates, and developmental consequences of divorce among junior high school students in rural China. Specifically, we investigate the connections between parental divorce and student mental health and academic performance, while also examining whether a student's living arrangement after divorce influences these outcomes. METHODS: Data were collected from 17,955 students across 122 rural junior high schools in China on their mental health, characteristics, and academic performance. Mental health was measured using the self-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. RESULTS: About 8.35 % of the students had divorced parents, with increased risk observed for students who were only children, had migrant mothers, or had higher educated mothers (ORs = 4.35, 29.94, and 1.78, respectively; Bonferroni-adjusted p < 0.05). Students with divorced parents exhibited a higher likelihood of internalizing (0.032), externalizing (0.052) abnormality (Bonferroni-adjusted p < 0.001) and scored 0.203 SD lower on the math test (Bonferroni-adjusted p < 0.001). Living arrangements post-divorce, either with a mother or a father, equally negatively impacted student mental health and academic performance, with a mitigating effect observed when grandparental childcare was provided. LIMITATIONS: Our study faced limitations in assessing the influence of grandparental childcare on coping with parental divorce due to challenges in gauging the extent of such support for students residing with a parent after divorce. This study did not empirically find differences by ethnicity; further in-depth case study is needed to better illuminate the findings. CONCLUSIONS: Parental divorce among young students in rural China is associated with adverse developmental outcomes. These findings underscore the importance of implementing targeted programs in rural China to mitigate these risks and provide support for young students with divorced parents.

The impact of a breast cancer diagnosis on marital outcomes and factors associated with divorce and separation.

Objective: To analyze marital outcomes, divorce or separation, and its association with demographic, socioeconomic, and clinicopathological factors among breast cancer (BC) survivors after 2-years of diagnosis. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of marital status at baseline and at years 1 and 2 of follow-up of women aged ≥ 18 years diagnosed with invasive BC participating in the AMAZONA III (GBECAM0115) study. The BC diagnosis occurred between January 2016 and March 2018 at 23 institutions in Brazil. Results: Of the 2974 women enrolled in AMAZONA III, 599 were married or living under common law at baseline. Divorce or separation occurred in 35 (5.8%) patients at 2 years of follow-up. In the multivariate analysis, public health insurance coverage was associated with a higher risk of marital status change (8.25% vs. 2.79%, RR 3.09, 95% CI 1.39 - 7.03, p = 0.007). Women who underwent mastectomy, adenomastectomy or skin-sparing mastectomy were associated with a higher risk of divorce or separation (8.1% vs. 4.49%, RR 1.97, 95 CI 1.04 - 3.72, p = 0.0366) than those who underwent breast-conserving surgery. Conclusion: Women covered by the public health system and those who underwent mastectomy, adenomastectomy or skin-sparing mastectomy were associated with a higher risk of divorce or separation. This evidence further supports the idea that long-term marital stability is associated with a complex interplay between socioeconomic conditions and stressors, such as BC diagnosis and treatment. ClinicalTrials Registration: NCT02663973.

Updating prospective marriage and divorce data on Norwegian cohorts of two-sex marriages from 1886 until 2018 with same-sex marriages from 1993 until 2018.

This paper presents an update to the previously published dataset known as prospective marriage and divorce data on Norwegian cohorts of two-sex marriages from 1886 until 2018. This update adds prospective data from all same-sex marriages formed in Norway between 1993 and 2018, with annual follow-up for 25 years, totaling 26 cohorts and 5,187 marriages. The data list the number of marriages that ended in divorce throughout each year of follow-up. The data contain information about the age of both spouses, the number of divorces from each cohort in the total population of marriages, as well as divorces among marriages formed in urban and rural areas of the country. Marriages formed within a calendar year are pooled into cohorts, and each pair is examined annually to ensure that the same two people remain married. As a result, the method is equivalent to the initial dataset on two-sex marriages presented in the first dataset.

Being alone after late-life divorce: freedom and loneliness from an intergenerational familial/dyadic perspective.

OBJECTIVES: To examine in-depth experiences of loneliness and freedom after late-life divorce from an intergenerational familial/dyadic perspective in a family-oriented society that also values self-determination. Considering the expansion of late-life divorce, it is important to understand its consequences for the family wellbeing. METHOD: According to phenomenology tradition, data was collected through 51 semi-structured qualitative interviews, comprised from 7 family units (n = 33) including all/most family members and 9 parent-child dyads (n = 18), using thematic-analysis and dyadic interview-analysis principles. Analyzing family units enables a more complex examination of the phenomena, providing a holistic view of family life. RESULTS: Loneliness and freedom experienced simultaneously was the most common. A gap was identified between generations regarding benefits and costs of late-life divorce. Whereas most divorcees emphasized the benefits of freedom, most of their adult-children mainly described the disadvantages of loneliness, perceiving both loneliness and freedom as negative. CONCLUSION: Late-life divorce is a complex experience comprised of both loneliness and freedom. Each generation experiences the benefits and costs of late-life divorce differently. Unique aspects of freedom and loneliness at old age in a socio-cultural context located between self-determination and family-oriented are discussed, including strategies of coping with loneliness. Implications for families and professionals are presented.

Making sense out of uncertainty: cognitive strategies in the child custody decision-making process.

Child custody cases post-parental separation entail inherent complexities and uncertainties for legal experts and decision-makers, and are influenced by context factors. This study sheds light on how legal actors (i.e., judges, prosecutors, lawyers, psychologists, and social workers) navigate the uncertainties that arise in such context and, therefore, make their decisions. Based on a reflexive thematic analysis involving 73 participants from Brazil and England, this study reveals cognitive strategies employed by legal actors to comprehend uncertainty and operate in the decision-making context. These strategies encompass heuristics (i.e., selection, evaluation, degrees of freedom, and outsourcing decisions/ resolution) and metacognitive strategies (custodial arrangements, professional practices and 'best interests of the child' speech). These results provide a window into the decision-making processes in child custody cases; they offer a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted sensemaking strategies employed by legal professionals. The results carry substantial implications for informing and improving legal practice in handling complex child custody situations. Furthermore, this study charts new paths for future research by highlighting potential avenues for refining and advancing the strategies employed by legal experts in these cases, especially considering the child's best interests.

Who Divorces Whom: Unilateral Divorce Legislation and the Educational Structure of Marriage.

The introduction of unilateral divorce legislation (UDL) starting in the late 1960s led to spikes in U.S. divorce rates. We ask whether making divorce easier affected the educational structure of marriage. Using marriage and divorce certificate data covering 1970-1988, we provide new evidence on the evolution of the educational structure of marriage inflows (newlyweds) and outflows (divorces). Next, we leverage the timing of UDL introduction across states to estimate its effects on both flows. We find that UDL affected the educational structure of divorce but not of new marriages: it made generally unstable hypogamous couples (women married to less educated partners) less likely to divorce and made homogamous couples more stable than hypergamous ones (women married to more educated partners).

Testing the Impacts of Rational-Emotive Couple Intervention in a Sample of Parents Seeking Divorce.

Marital burnout has not been extensively studied despite its huge consequences on family wellbeing and quality of family life. This study, using randomised-controlled trial, tested the impact of rational-emotive couple intervention on marital burnout in a sample of parents seeking a divorce. A total of 67 parents who participated during the rational-emotive couple intervention (RECI) were assessed using the marital burnout scale, Beck depression inventory, and parent rational and irrational beliefs scale. Crosstabulation, multivariate test analysis, and bivariate analysis were used to analyse the data collected. Results show a significant reduction of marital burnout in RECI group participants, and significant improvement was maintained at the follow-up stage. The result of the group and gender interaction effect shows no significant interaction effect of group and gender on participants' marital burnout at Time two and Time 3, respectively. The results indicate that a decrease in parents' irrational beliefs accounts for marital burnout among couples seeking a divorce. Marital burnout is positively associated with depression among couples seeking a divorce. This study concludes that the RECI is an effective intervention that reduces marital burnout which is a direct consequence of irrational beliefs which later metamorphose into depressive symptoms.

Life Events and Incident Dementia: A Prospective Study of 493,787 Individuals Over 16 Years.

OBJECTIVES: Life events can be stressful and have a detrimental impact on health, but evidence is inconclusive regarding life events and dementia risk. The present study tests whether life events are associated with incident dementia, whether experiencing multiple events has cumulative effects, and whether the associations vary across age, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and genetic vulnerability. METHODS: UK Biobank participants (N = 493,787) reported on 6 life events that occurred within the past 2 years: serious illness, injury, assault to yourself or close relative, death of a spouse/partner or close relative, marital separation/divorce, and financial problems. Incident all-cause dementia was ascertained through health records from the UK National Health Service over a 16-year follow-up. RESULTS: Serious illness, injury, or assault to yourself, marital separation/divorce, and financial difficulties were associated with a higher risk of dementia; serious illness, injury, or assault of a close relative was associated with a lower risk of dementia. When combined, experiencing 3-4 events was associated with a more than 2-fold increase in dementia risk. The association for marital separation/divorce was stronger within the first 5 years of follow-up (consistent with reverse causality). Death of a spouse/partner or close relative was mostly unrelated to dementia risk. With few exceptions, the associations were similar across age, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and apolipoprotein E e4 status groups. DISCUSSION: Severe illness, injury, or personal assault, marital separation or divorce, and financial hardships may raise risk of dementia, particularly when these events occur together.

Family Structure, Family Transitions, and Child Overweight and Obesity: Comparing Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Growing rates of childhood obesity globally create concern for individuals' health outcomes and demands on health systems. While many policy approaches focus on macro-level interventions, we examine how the type of stability of a family structure might provide opportunities for policy interventions at the micro level. We examine the association between family structure trajectories and childhood overweight and obesity across three Anglophone countries using an expanded set of eight family structure categories that capture biological relationships and instability, along with potential explanatory variables that might vary across family trajectories and provide opportunities for intervention, including access to resources, family stressors, family structure selectivity factors, and obesogenic correlates. We use three datasets that are representative of children born around the year 2000 and aged 11 years old in Australia (n = 3329), the United Kingdom (n = 11,542), and the United States (n = 8837) and nested multivariate multinomial logistic regression models. Our analyses find stronger relationships between child overweight and obesity and family structure trajectories than between child obesity and obesogenic factors. Children in all three countries are sensitive to living with cohabiting parents, although in Australia, this is limited to children whose parents have been cohabiting since before their birth. In the UK and US, parents starting their cohabitation after the child's birth are more likely to have children who experience obesity. Despite a few differences across cross-cultural contexts, most of the relationship between family structures and child overweight or obesity is connected to differences in families' access to resources and by the types of parents who enter into these family structures. These findings suggest policy interventions at the family level that focus on potential parents' education and career prospects and on income support rather than interventions like marriage incentives.

Divorce and physical health: A three-level meta-analysis.

Divorce is often considered a major and stressful life transition. Given that divorcees are overrepresented in primary care and there is a association between individuals' physical health and psychological adjustment, potential post-divorce health problems are of concern. Yet, empirical evidence is lacking on the magnitude of the overall physical health risk after divorce, on possible differences across specific pathologies, and on factors that may increase or reduce this risk. The current meta-analysis addresses these issues. We identified 94 studies including u = 248 relevant effect sizes, based on N = 1,384,507 participants. Generally, compared to married individuals, divorcees showed significantly worse self-reported health (OR = 1.20, [1.08-1.33]), experienced more physical symptoms (OR = 1.34, [1.17-1.53]), and had a higher risk for diabetes (OR = 1.18 [1.05-1.33]), joint pathologies (OR = 1.24, [1.14-1.34]), cardiovascular (OR = 1.24, [1.09-1.41]) and cerebrovascular conditions (OR = 1.31, [1.14-1.51]), and sexually transmitted diseases (OR = 2.48, [1.32-4.64]). However, they had no increased risk of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, cancer and cancer development, disabilities or limitations, or cognitive pathologies. Nor did divorcees significantly differ from married individuals when aggregating all pathologies to measure overall physical health problems (OR = 1.14, [0.85 to 1.54]). Yet, moderation analyses revealed that being female, unemployed, childless, or having a lower education constitutes a higher risk for overall physical health problems after divorce. The same applied to having a heavy alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, and being overweight. Our meta-analysis shows that divorcees are at heightened risk of certain pathologies, with sexually transmitted diseases as a particular post-divorce hazard. These findings call for more awareness among counsellors and physicians on divorcees' health conditions and the characteristics that make divorcees even more vulnerable to health problems.

Comparing Neighbors and Friends in Age-Related Network Changes.

OBJECTIVES: To assess how the role of neighbors and friends in people's networks changes with age and how this is affected by cohort, marriage, employment, and socioeconomic status. The hypothesis is that for most aspects of the network, friends lose "importance" as people become older, with neighbors gradually becoming more dominant in the nonkin network. METHODS: Data are used for people aged 55-90 between 1999 and 2019 from the Swiss Household Panel (N = 5,585). A total of 4 network aspects were measured: size, contact, practical support, and emotional support. Measures for neighbors and friends were compared and analyzed with fixed-effects and hybrid-effects regression models on person-year observations. RESULTS: The sizes of both network segments declined with age but more strongly for friends than neighbors. Contact with friends was stable but contact with neighbors increased. Support from friends declined whereas support from neighbors was stable. Direct comparisons revealed that the relative share of neighbors vis-à-vis friends increased as people age. Friends were more common and supportive vis-à-vis neighbors for divorced and widowed people than for married people, but this gap declined with age. The share of neighbors increased with retirement, especially for men. The share of neighbors vis-à-vis friends was also larger for people with less income and education and this gap did not change with age. DISCUSSION: In the nonkin part of older adults' networks, proximity eventually becomes dominant. This finding is interpreted in terms of rising needs, greater opportunity for local contact, and friend mortality risks, all favoring the neighbor segment of the network.

Marital Status and Happiness During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: This study examines the long-observed marital advantage in happiness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic may have altered the marital advantage in happiness due to changes in social integration processes. However, this has not been explored in previous studies. Method: Data were from the COVID-19 substudy of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (N=2622). A series of regressions were estimated to understand marital status differences in pandemic happiness and changes in relationships with non-resident family and friends. Karlson-Holm-Breen mediation analysis was conducted to examine whether relationships with non-resident family and friends explained the marital association with pandemic happiness. Results: From pre-pandemic to pandemic, married respondents experienced a greater increase in unhappiness than unmarried counterparts, narrowing happiness gaps. However, unmarried individuals, including cohabiting, divorced, widowed, and never married individuals, continued to report higher levels of unhappiness during the pandemic than married peers. These differences primarily stemmed from pre-pandemic happiness. After controlling for pre-pandemic happiness, cohabiting, widowed, and never married older adults did not significantly differ from their married counterparts in reporting unhappiness during the pandemic. In contrast, divorced individuals remained consistently more unhappy than married individuals during the pandemic, mainly due to deteriorated relationship quality with non-resident family. Conclusion: During a global crisis, it is crucial for policymakers, healthcare providers, and researchers to develop innovative interventions to promote happiness and healthy aging among all older adults, paying special attention to those who are divorced.