The crisis of divorce affects up to forty percent of all marriages. Each year, two percent of all children are affected by divorce. The events of separation and divorce are characterized by multiple changes in family structure, parent-child relationships, living and visitation arrangements, and the family's social support system. / This study proposed that intervening with single-parent fathers and their elementary-aged children would lead to increased family functioning, decreased emotional upset, and increased positive father-child interactive behaviors. Twelve fathers requested treatment; eight completed the program. Of the eight fathers who completed the program, six received a nine-week program of behavioral parent training and communication training. Two fathers received a nine-week contact control condition, consisting of reading and discussing divorce-related articles from the popular literature. A single-subject AB design was used, with five replications of the experimental treatment and one replication of the control condition. In-home behavioral observations and objective reports of anxiety, depression, locus of control, child behavior and knowledge of child management principles allowed for demonstration of treatment effects. Implementers of treatment and behavioral observers were unaware of the study's hypotheses. / The four fathers who dropped out of treatment, and implications for future research with single-parent families are discussed. It was concluded that intervention with recently separated, single-parent fathers and their children at this time of crisis can result in valued improvement, less so in parental behavior change, and more so in father and child attitude and affect, and that a structured educational program of parent training and communication training allows for somewhat greater improvement of father-child functioning than does divorce education alone. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: B, page: 3533. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75928 |
| Contributors | MCGOLRICK, SUSAN F. MOREY., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 180 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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