ABSTRACT
Students of divorce have traditionally directed their attention toward describing its effects on the social and cognitive development of children and adolescents. Although great effort has been expended in studying the consequences of divorce as a global concept, less attention has been given to understanding the specific aspects of divorce that directly compromise parent-child relations and indirectly impact social and cognitive developmental outcomes. The classic work of Hetherington and her colleagues provides much of the large quantity of empirical information that addresses the latter issue (see Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1979a, 1979b, 1980, 1981).
