Abstract
The Rainbows for Children program (an intervention aimed at ameliorating the effects of parental divorce) was evaluated using a pre- and post-test design that compared program participants to a control group of non-participants. AU children indicated higher levels of depression and lower levels of behavioral academic selfesteem than normative samples of children who do not come from divorced fami- lies. Children with higher indications of imtiond beliefs and feelings about divorce revealed more behavioral and psychological problems as indicated by the Children's Depression Invenlory (Kovacs, 1982) and the Behavioral Academic Self-Esteem Scale (Coopersmith & Giberts, 1982). While these results provide support for Ihe premise that chang- ing children's beliefs about divorce should lead to improved outcomes, the program participants did not show any signir~cant improvement over the control group after participating in the Rainbows program. Possible exvlanations for the lack of effects are m i d e d . and s~ecific recornmendatiom of factors to consider in decid6g whether to cdntinue to mvide inkmention momnu of this sort and if so. how to irnorove the' program and out&eskr the children, b e providkd.