THE COLLABORATIVE DIVORCE PROJECT: A Court‐Based Intervention for Separating Parents with Young Children

• Author: Katherine Gustafson,Glendessa M. Insabella,Marsha Kline Pruett
• Published date: 01 January 2005
• Date: 01 January 2005
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1617.2005.00006.x

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 43 No. 1, January 2005 38–51

© 2005 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.Oxford, UKFCREFamily Court Review1531-2445© 2004 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts431Original Article

FAMILY COURT REVIEW

Pruett et al. / COLLABORATIVE DIVORCE PROJECT

THE COLLABORATIVE DIVORCE PROJECT:

A Court-Based Intervention for Separating Parents with

Young Children

Marsha Kline Pruett

Glendessa M. Insabella

Yale University School of Medicine

Katherine Gustafson

Yale University Abstract

The role the legal process of separation and divorce plays in affecting outcomes for young children and their families

was examined in the Collaborative Divorce Project (CDP), an intervention designed to assist the parents of children

six years old or younger as they begin the separation/divorce process (married and unmarried couples). Evaluation

and outcome data were collected from 161 couples, their attorneys, teachers, and court records. In addition to positive

evaluations from both parents, intervention families benefited through lower conflict, greater father involvement,

and better outcomes for children than the control group. Attorneys and court records indicate that intervention

families were more cooperative and were less likely to need custody evaluations and other costly services. The

CDP illustrates how prevention programs can be located within the courts, can be systematically evaluated, and

can aid in helping the legal system function optimally for families with young children.

Keywords:

young children

;

preventive intervention

;

family outcomes

;

father involvement

;

court-based intervention

;

clinical trial

While researchers have made significant gains over the past twenty-five years in

understanding the reactions of and outcomes for children of divorce (e.g., Amato, 2001;

Hetherington & Kelly, 2002; Wallerstein & Lewis, 1998), we have barely scratched the

surface in our exploration of the role that the legal process of separation and divorce plays

in affecting family outcomes. In addition to children experiencing parental divorce, nearly

one third of all children born in this country will have unmarried parents (U.S. Census,

1999), many of whom will require legal intervention to sort out their child custody issues

and division of assets.

Families with young children comprise a significant proportion of the separating and

divorcing population. Over half of the children who experience divorce do so by age six,

and 75% of these children are under three years of age (Emery, 1988). Moreover, rates of

childbirth among unmarried parents have grown steadily over the past 20 years. Unmarried

couples tend to have less stable relationships than married ones, often ending their romantic

involvement within the first two years of their relationship (Smock, 2000). Unmarried

parents separate at younger ages and have younger children at the time of relationship

dissolution than do married couples (Insabella, Williams, & Pruett, 2003). Separation and

divorce, therefore, is likely to produce ongoing disruption in the nurturing domain at

The Collaborative Divorce Project was a cooperative endeavor by the Connecticut judiciary, the Court Support

Services Division of the Connecticut Superior Court, and the Yale University School of Medicine. We wish to

acknowledge Judges Anne Dranginis and Herbert Gruendel; CSSD Deputy Director Stephen Grant and Robert

Tompkins; and our funders: Smith Richardson Foundation, Inc, Karen Pritzker, Roslyn and Jerry Meyers, and

the Community Foundation of Northeastern Connecticut.

Please direct correspondence to Dr. Marsha Kline Pruett, Division of Law & Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 34 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06508; email: Marsha.Pruett@yale.edu