Nobody gets married thinking they're going to divorce even though the statistics are fairly well-known: in the United States forty percent of all first marriages, sixty percent of all second marriages, and seventy-three percent of all third marriages end in divorce. Half of all children living in the U.S. will experience their parents' divorce; half of those will witness a second one. Studies on children of divorce show that they tend to have lower grades and a higher school dropout rate than children whose parents are still together, they struggle more with peer relationships, are more likely to need psychological and substance abuse services, and as adults are almost twice as likely to attempt suicide. However, it is very important to note that the divorce itself is not the main contributor to these statistics, and rather it has been found it is high conflict co-parenting and loss of attachment to a parent as a result of divorce that causes these grim statistics. Help your clients learn cooperative co-parenting -- children of divorce whose parents co-parent cooperatively tend to do very well!

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