A REVIEW OF ONLINE DIVORCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS

• Author: Elissa Thomann Mitchell,Robert Hughes, Jr.,Jennifer L. Hardesty,Jill R. Bowers
• Date: 01 October 2011
• Published date: 01 October 2011
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1617.2011.01413.x

A REVIEW OF ONLINE DIVORCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Jill R. Bowers, Elissa Thomann Mitchell, Jennifer L. Hardesty, and Robert Hughes, Jr.

Divorce education programs first surfaced overfour decades ago. Today,many states mandate parents to participate in a divorce

education program before their dissolution can be finalized. Changes in the technological landscape have allowedinnovative

practitioners to create online divorce education programs, yet these programs have not been formally evaluated for quality.

Adapting a research design for evaluating face-to-face programs, we created an online divorce education review form and

reviewed online divorceeducation programs that parents use to meet cour t-mandated requirements. Results revealthat online

programs have significant potential to help divorcing parents, yet there are areas of online program content and instructional

strategies that can be improved. Program content that includes legal and court focused topics or modules, or that offer advice

for families facing special circumstances such as domestic violence, could be enhanced. Additionally,most of the instructional

strategies were passive. With this research, recommendations were made for improving program content and instructional

strategies for online divorce education programs.fcre_1413776..787

Keywords: divorce;divorce education;evaluation;onlineprogram;technology

Divorce education programs in the U.S. first began in the mid 1970s and became more popular in

the 1980s and 1990s (Braver, Salem, Pearson, & DeLuse, 1996). In general, these programs are

designed to educate divorcing parents on how to focus on the best interests of their children by

developing cooperative coparenting relationships. Interest in these programs has rapidly increased as

researchers have documented the negativeeffects on children of ongoing exposure to parental conflict

after divorce (Adamson & Pasley, 2006). Indeed, many states now mandate parents to participate in

divorce education before their divorce can be finalized.A variety of mandated programs exist, and

several researchers have assessed their quality (e.g., Blaisure & Geasler, 1996). To date, these

evaluations have been limited to face-to-face programs.As online divorce education programs grow

in popularity,research is needed to assess their quality. In this paper, we report our review of six online

programs that parents can complete to meet court-mandated requirements for divorce education.

EVALUATION OF DIVORCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Blaisure and Geasler (1996) conducted one of the most comprehensive studies on face-to-face

programs. Using Hughes’ (1994) Family Life Program Review Form, they reviewed program mate-

rials and conducted phone interviews with program administrators. They evaluated the structural

components (e.g., attendance policies, fees), topics covered, teaching strategies, source of materials,

theoretical foundations, and evaluation methods of 37 programs that represented 310 of the 541

counties with divorce education (Blaisure & Geasler, 1996; Geasler & Blaisure, 1998). Programs

often lacked documentation of theoretical and empirical foundations (Geasler & Blaisure, 1998).

Moreover, programs often used passive teaching strategies (i.e., lecture, video) even though active

involvement or skill building techniques have yielded more positive results in divorce education

research (Geasler & Blaisure, 1998). Finally, the topics covered emphasized children’s needs and

parental responses while court-focused content was limited. Blaisure and Geasler (1996) emphasized

the need to further examine the link between theory, empirical research, and practice in divorce

Correspondence: bowers5@illinois.edu or jill.bowers7@gmail.com

FAMILY COURT REVIEW,Vol. 49 No. 4, October 2011 776–787

© 2011 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts