A Systematic Review Identifying Child-Focused Assessment Tools to Improve the Development and Evaluation of Divorce Education Programs

ABSTRACT

Divorce education programs have increased in prevalence over time due to the high and sustained rate of divorce in the United States. These programs have been shown to improve familial relationship quality post-divorce, especially for children, with many states requiring parents to complete a divorce education program prior to the issuance of the final judgment. However, divorce education programs vary greatly in length, content, and goals due to the lack of standardization. Using the Divorce-Stress-Adjustment Theory, this systematic review focuses on identifying assessment tools that can be utilized to operationalize common content areas identified by Schramm and colleagues in 2018 that are delivered within many divorce education programs. In total, 18 measures were identified that could be used to operationalize a set of eight constructs and sub-constructs. Recommendations are provided for assessment tools that could effectively be used for program evaluation and suggestions are made for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Divorce education
• assessment tools
• divorce
• coparenting
• child adjustment
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.