In adolescents of divorced parents, the mother program and the mother plus child program reduced symptoms of mental disorder; rates of diagnoses of mental disorder; levels of externalizing problems; marijuana, alcohol, and other drug use; and number of sexual partners.

The authors examined the role of family factors and the course of schizophrenia by carrying out additional assessments and analyses in 2 previously published studies of Mexican American and Anglo American patients and families. The authors found partial support for an attributional model of relapse for families who are low in emotional overinvolvement. Attributions of control, criticism, and warmth together marginally predicted relapse. The data also indicated that for Mexican Americans, family warmth is a significant protective factor, whereas for Anglo Americans, family criticism is a significant risk factor. These findings suggest that the sociocultural context shapes the pathways by which family processes are related to the course of illness. Moreover, the warmth findings suggest that families may contribute to preventing relapse.

This study examined predictors of intervention-induced resilience in children of divorce whose mothers participated in a preventive parenting program. Contextual, maternal, and child factors were examined as predictors of improved child adjustment using two strategies: (a) within-group analyses conducted with program participants and (b) between-group analyses, in which relations in the parenting intervention were compared with those in a control condition. Between-group analyses showed that children were less likely to maintain program gains in externalizing when maternal demoralization was high or when children's self-regulatory skills were low. Implications for program modification and methodology for studying predictors of program benefit are discussed.

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grant P30 MH439246-16. 'A related adverse circumstance is nonmarital childbirth, which is almost as common (35.8 % versus 37.0% of children living in divorced homes; Bureau of the Census, 1996) and perhaps even more toxic. This chapter is confined to children whose parents were once legally married and subsequently experienced divorce.

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