Mending Broken Families: Social Policies for Divorced Families: How Effective Are They? ‐ by Emily M. Douglas

Mending Broken Families: Social Policies for Divorced Families: How Effective Are They? Emily M. Douglas. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2006. 211 pp. ISBN- 13: 978-0-7425-4277-8. $29.95 (paperback). In Mending Broken Families: Social Policies for Divorced Families: How Effective Are they?, Emily Douglas begins to answer the question vexing professionals working with families involved with the legal system. She does so by analyzing research concerning several social policies including divorce mediation and divorce education programs and statutory requirements regarding parenting plans and joint custody. Also analyzed are policies concerning parent relocation, covenant marriages, and problem prevention programs. The audior concludes with recommendations for policymakers and researchers. Dr. Douglas presents an accurate picture of the state of research for most family law issues. "The divorce literature is lacking both quality and substance for almost every social policy that is addressed in this book." (p. 133) Although there are many scholars, private practitioners, and court personnel committed to developing policies to assist families, there is general malaise in terms of evaluating them for effectiveness. And, more importandy, Dr. Douglas notes mat virtually no research examines me impact of participation in several programs simultaneously or sequentially. Most families participate in several programs (e.g., mediation, divorce education) in addition to litigating issues not covered in mediation and possibly attending problem prevention programs. Research on die interaction of these policies is critical for us to fully understand me impact of these programs together or individually. A significant exception to the gloomy state of social policy research generally is research assessing the effectiveness of problem prevention programs. These programs include those that focus on parent, child, and parent-child adjustment problems. Dr. Douglas aptly notes that these programs are often well designed and appear to have promising results. She also finds tiiat some of the research in family mediation is also well designed. Not surprisingly, these are the programs that Dr. Douglas then recommends be mandated for all divorcing parents. Important social programs not covered in this book but also important to consider in future analyses are the impact of dedicated (sometimes called unified) family courts and parenting coordinators. Dedicated or unified family courts have been argued to better coordinate social programs for families. Parenting coordinator programs have been instituted across the country with little to no evaluation. Although Dr. Douglas states that when conducting research we should not include never-married parents in samples of married parents, I emphasize that full consideration of the needs of this growing group is critical. Births outside of marriage now constitute nearly 40% of all births in the United States. The needs of this important group of parents will have enormous impact on all social policies related to families. From analysis of the research, the author then moves to advocating for continued implementation of social policies to influence social behavior and attitudes. …