CONSIDERATION OF THE IMPACT OF HOW CHILDREN ARE INFORMED OF THEIR PARENTS DIVORCE DECISION - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Since the early 1970s more than a million children per year have exper ienced parental divorce. Little attention has been paid to the impact on children of how they are informed of their parents' divorce decisio n. There are great gaps in our knowledge of the topic. Our meager curr ent knowledge seems to indicate the typical scenario is one in which t he mother alone informs the child, who is clearly unhappy over the new s. Future research needs to consider children's developmental levels. Eventual findings may prove very useful to parents and clinicians.