Effects of parental divorce on children.

Though divorce rates have been more or less stable in Bri-tain over the past decade and the steep increases of earlier years have levelled off, concern about the consequences of divorce for both adults and children has remained high. There is continued interest too in practical responses. Conciliation services are now an established part of the scene, albeit very inadequately supported financially, and are developing a wide range of approaches.' There is also the prospect of a new divorce law which is intended to encourage negotiated settlement of conflicts. The distress and difficulties that children experience as they become aware that their parents may separate, and which persist through the often long and drawn out process of divorce, have been well described.2" Research has made a good deal of headway in identifying the factors which are important for children's adjustment. Where children maintain good relationships with both parents the negative effects of divorce are mitigated. But breaks and continuing change in these relationships can be associated with low self esteem, depression and anxiety, acting out behaviour, and poor relationships with peers." Continuing conflict between the parents after a divorce has also been found to result in negative outcomes for children possibly because the conflicts tend to erode the quality of parent-child relationships.8 Joint custody arrangements have often been promoted as helpful to children and, although research evaluation is still far from adequate, the indications are that it is helpful insofar as it may help to maintain good relationships between the child and both parents. Parental health often suffers as a marriage ends.9 Poor health and particularly poor psychological health may reduce the capacity to be an effective parent, and this may also be an important factor in children's adjustment. Research in both Britain'" and the USA" has drawn attention to the sharp drop in income to households with children after divorce. Probably the majority of the poorest homes with children in Britain have been created through a divorce and, of course, as is well known, poverty has very detrimental effects on the development of children. Government plans 'to make fathers pay' seem unlikely to have a significant effect on the situation as the main consequences would seem to be to create a net flow of money from fathers to the exchequer. There is growing research interest in the effects of remar-riage on children, but we are still some way from …