The Influence of Divorce on Children and Family : Through a review of studies about divorce and mental support

In this article, we have reviewed the research on divorce and policy interventions for divorced families conducted during the past decade in Japan and in the United States, and examined the future prospects of family support practices. In Japan, because case study and interview have been two frequently adopted methods, it is necessary in the future to focus more on finding out general trends and evidences for the impact of divorce through longitudinal studies or with larger samples. In the U.S., although there exists a numerous research on divorce impact, gaps still remain in the search for factors which differentiate children\u27s adjustment following parental divorce. While the U.S. make active attempts in openly providing psycho-educational support program designed in accordance with research results, interventions in Japan remain limited as they are often in small scale based on the U.S. models. The need of developing programs that are tailored to fit Japanese culture that target larger numbers of divorced families are stressed in this article