DETERMINANTS OF SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL DIVORCE NEGOTIATIONS

To assess the major determinants of divorce settlement negotiations be tween divorcing spouses and their lawyers, 90 recent divorcees selecte d from the court records of Middlesex County, New Jersey, completed a 14-page Divorce Settlement Experience Questionnaire (DSEQ). Factor ana lysis of relevant DSEQ items yielded two outcome factors: A Post-Divor ce Cooperation Factor and a Post-Divorce Satisfaction Factor. Multiple regression and correlational analyses revealed that six hypotheses ob tained significant independent effects. Generally speaking, favorable settlement outcomes were associated with: a cooperative negotiating cl imate, client control of the settlement process, resource availability , and psychological adjustment.