The Efficacy of Divorce Education: A Pilot Study Evaluating FamilyKind\u27s Implementation of the New York State Parent Education and Awareness Program

The research on children whose parents are separated or divorced presents much debate regarding the role of risk factors and the influence of interventions to mitigate negative outcomes. Reviews of research on divorce have consistently supported findings that children of divorce have a higher incidence of mental health, substance abuse, academic, and social problems than their peers from intact families. Short-term parent divorce education (PDE) programs are the most widely prescribed intervention for families going through the divorce process, and recent evidence supports the positive effects of PDE classes on parent behavior and child adjustment post-divorce. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a community-based implementation of the New York State-certified Parent Education and Awareness Program (PEAP) by the non-profit organization FamilyKind. The present study examined the impact of divorce education through a cross-sectional design with a 3- or 6-month follow-up. A pilot sample of participants (treatment group) provided self-report data on parenting attitudes and practices compared to a control group of divorcing parents who did not receive the intervention. Independent-samples t tests were used to analyze the mean differences between the groups after the follow-up. The follow-up with parents attempted to evaluate whether the PEAP curriculum was associated with higher ratings of co-parenting, parenting satisfaction, and parenting efficacy on self-report questionnaires when compared with controls. Participants who received the PEAP intervention reported significantly higher levels of parenting satisfaction and parenting efficacy than participants in the control group. There were no significant effects for co-parenting. Participants who received PEAP were generally satisfied with the intervention, felt comfortable sharing their experiences and participating, felt hopeful regarding their parenting abilities upon completion of the program, and indicated that they would recommend the program to others