Understanding and supporting families in the process of divorce

The current U.S. divorce rate of 40 percent, involving a total of 12 million children under the age of 18, is a compelling factor for family health care providers. In working with families in the process of divorce, it is important to understand divorce as a series of events involving a period of transition. The process is complex and multifaceted, requiring the disintegration of one family structure and the reorganization of another. Children and adolescents will respond to the divorce of their parents contingent on their developmental levels, their temperaments and the amount and quality of their environmental supports. Parents are expected to provide stability for their children at a time when their own lives may be falling apart. How parents handle the situational crisis and accomplish the reorganization of the family in the post-divorce period is a significant variable in long-term individual and family adjustment. Through awareness and sensitivity to the issues involved, the nurse practitioner can be a positive and stable influence during this critical period.