ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses numerous specific aspects of mental health, paying particular attention to the extent to which the effects are short- or long-term. It describes the variety of intervention strategies that have been suggested for divorcing families. Psychopathology is often defined as a problem that could be classified according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The term depression may refer to a temporary state or to a clinical syndrome that persists over time and a variety of situations. As with depression, one would expect to find that children experience transient anxiety as they are adjusting to various aspects of a parental divorce. The terms self-esteem and self-concept refer to similar variables but are not synonymous. Self-concept generally refers to an overall perception of one's abilities or personality. The meta-analysis for data with children also found no relation between social adjustment and parental divorce when the data were obtained from a parent.
