Summarised research reviews upon which to promote social and emotional wellbeing in children of separated parents

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the principal research findings of social and behavioural science which highlight factors concerning risk and resilience in children when parental conflict results in the breakup of their families. The purpose is simply to indicate the growing background knowledge base for the practice and policy proposals for preventive support services for children. Two main streams of research are considered. The first focuses on the social and emotional wellbeing of children in schools. These institutions have a primary preventive role, as indeed do primary healthcare teams. The second, drawn largely from the field of developmental psychology, focuses more on intra-familial behavioural issues. This is a rapidly growing area of knowledge which is being recognised and applied more particularly to the field of parental conflict resolution and in the context of the interdisciplinary family justice system.