Divorcing couples get tips to help kids

The Parent Education and Custody Effectiveness (PEACE) program is an interdisciplinary collaboration among the University's Primary Mental Health Project (PMHP), the 7th Judicial District, local mediators, mental health specialists, and legal professionals. The program is a court-based service to parents in need.

Unlike most other programs of this type, PEACE has ongoing evaluations, led by principal investigator JoAnne Pedro-Carroll, an associate professor of psychology at the University and a clinical psychologist at PMHP. The first session for parents began February 28.

"A goal of the PEACE program is to protect children from becoming unwitting casualties of a divorce war, and to help them not only survive, but thrive in the aftermath of a family breakup," said Pedro-Carroll. "The program is intended to be proactive, preventive and educational, not reactive or adversarial."

Marital disruption touches the lives of more than three million parents and children each year in this country. The changes inherent in the process of divorce pose stresses for all family members. Yet, how children fare in the aftermath of divorce depends, in good measure, on how parents go about negotiating the end of their marriage and creating a solid foundation for children to develop in the reorganized family.

Ongoing conflict between parents has powerful negative effects that place children at risk for long-term adjustment problems, experts say. Conversely, studies show that certain parenting practices protect and enhance children's well-being over time. The primary objective of the PEACE sessions is to provide guidelines and behavioral "tools" for parents to manage the intense emotions associated with divorce, while at the same time parent effectively.

The goal, Pedro-Carroll said, is "to reduce the stress of divorce on children by enhancing parents' abilities to provide maximum support to their children, even as they forge their way through one of the most challenging changes of their lives."