The Children of Divorce Intervention Program: an investigation of the efficacy of a school-based prevention program.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Children of Divorce Intervention Program (CODIP), a school-based, preventively oriented 10-week group program for fourth-grade through sixth-grade children of divorce. CODIP creates a supportive group atmosphere in which children can share divorce-related feelings, clarify common misconceptions, and reduce feelings of isolation and builds competence by teaching problem-solving, communication, and anger control skills to help children cope adaptively with challenges posed by parental divorce. Seventy-two children of divorce, in demographically matched groups, were assigned randomly to an immediate intervention (experimental) or a delayed intervention (control) group. The experimental group improved significantly more on teacher ratings of problem behaviors and competence and parent ratings of adjustment and self-reported anxiety. Group leaders also rated experimental group children as having improved significantly.