Prior research has demonstrated that the transition following parental divorce is highly stressful for most children. Children of divorced parents are more likely to exhibit psychological, behavioral, social, and academic problems than children raised in intact two-parent families (Amato, 1993; Kelly, 2000). Many of the problems (e.g., lower educational attainment and earnings, welfare dependency, poor marital quality) persist well into adulthood (Amato and Keith, 1991; Amato et al., 1995; Dube et al., 2001; Dube et al., 2002).
