ABSTRACT
Perhaps therapist’s diagnostic skills face no greater challenge than the formulation of an understanding of the school behavior and academic difficulties of a child from a single-parent family. In examining the literature on single-parent families, it was relatively easy to find research that supported a deficit model of the children living in these families. Many of the initial articles reviewed focused on the pathology and negativistic ramifications of the divorced family setting (e.g., see Walsh, 1990). Upon closer investigation, however, it became readily apparent that many methodological problems existed with this research (Emery, 1982; Marsh, 1990).
