PARENTAL DIVORCE - FROM THE CHILDRENS VIEWPOINT

Sixty-three children aged 7-18 years were interviewed individually 2 y ears after their parents' divorce about their experiences of this even t, and their feelings about it. Their residential parents were intervi ewed in parallel. The results indicated that thoughts about the divorc e were more prevalent among the children than the parents realized. Th e boys and the younger children accepted the divorce to a lesser exten t relative to what the parents thought. The children's knowledge about the divorce before the event and the extent to which the divorce had been discussed by the children and their parents crystallized to be of great importance for the children's ability to cope with and accept t he divorce. Additional findings suggested that about one-third of the children wished for more frequent contact with their divorced parent. In conclusion, there was both a lack of information to the children an d a lack in communication between children and parents about the divor ce. It seems of importance to teach parents to discuss the divorce eve nt repeatedly with their children.