Publication: Children and Divorce

• Behrman, Richard E.

In this issue of The Future of Children, we examine divorce
because of the large and increasing numbers of children in
the United States who experience the divorce of their
parents. Although our focus is on the process and
consequences of divorce, the prevention of divorce through
education and counseling before and during marriage would
be of benefit to many children as well as their parents.
Public policy related to divorce must chart a careful
course between the Scylla of creating incentives for
divorce, with its untoward effects on children and society,
and the Charybdis of unduly restricting the freedom of
individuals to determine for themselves when cohabitation
should be terminated, because high-conflict marriage also
may have untoward effects on children and society. We have
tried to put divorce into the perspective of time and of
trends, other than divorce, which have contributed to the
diversity of family composition in this country, such as
remarriage, cohabitation outside marriage, and single,
never-married motherhood.

The articles presented here summarize knowledge and
experience in selected areas that we believe are relevant
to improving public policies in the United States which
have an impact on the wellbeing of children who experience
the divorce of their parents. We hope the information and
analyses these articles contain will further understanding
of the important issues and thus contribute to reasonable
changes in policies which will benefit children of divorce.