A symposium has presentations and discussion by 3-4 experts on a particular topic. A discussant integrates and summarizes the papers, develops implications for policy and practice from the research, and facilitates audience discussion.

Papers listed below are included in this session.

Discussant: Lawrence Shelton
Chair: Melinda Stafford Markham

Summary
This symposium is guided by the divorce-stress-adjustment perspective and brings together four papers utilizing a new standardized evaluation tool for divorce education programs. The first paper will provide a description and core components of the Divorce Education Assessment Collaborative (DEAC) evaluation tool. Information will also be provided on what was learned through the construction of the DEAC and future use of the standardized evaluation tool. The remaining three papers will provide results from using the DEAC evaluation tool within three separate divorce education programs: Parents Forever, Successful Co-Parenting After Divorce, and Co-Parenting And Revising Expectations. By systematically evaluating divorce education programs we will be better positioned to be able to provide important information regarding how well divorce education programs prepare parents for post-divorce life as well as whether certain programs, including programs of varying length, are particularly effective.

Objectives

• To share information on a standardized divorce education evaluation tool that is freely available to divorce educators.
• To provide insights into future possible uses of the standardized evaluation tool to analyze data across multiple programs.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of three different divorce education programs using the standardized evaluation tool.

Subject Codes: relationship dissolution, coparenting, parenting education
Population Codes: divorced
Method and Approach Codes: program evaluation