Children of divorce.

BACKGROUND The rapidly changing nature and demographics of divorce in United States within the past 30 years has spawned an epidemic that affects more than one half of the families in the United States.

METHODS I performed a MEDLINE-assisted review of the medical literature searching with the key words "divorce" and "children." In addition, a Web search was conducted using Webferret with the same key words.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The past view of divorce as a short-term family crisis must mature into a longitudinal view of the effects of divorce. Divorce affects children according to their coping mechanisms in their own stages of development. Many problems and concerns previously attributed to divorce have their roots in the period of family interaction before the divorce and in the ongoing conflicts in many families after the divorce itself. Because family physicians are objective observers with whom the family comes into regular contact, they must be able to assist families through the transitions of divorce and to intervene on behalf of the children to help them through this stressful life event with the fewest detrimental effects possible. Counseling, group therapy, and divorce mediation have been assessed as effective tools for intervention.