Consensus or Confusion in Research on Children and Divorce

The body of literature on children and divorce presents a confusing picture, but the need to understand divorce has never been greater. In an effort to clarify the literature, 18 studies published between 1978 and 1981 were compared and contrasted for conceptual and methodological features. Studies were selected using a multistage sampling technique. Each study was reviewed for conceptual and methodological dimensions, and major conclusions were categorized as positive, neutral, or negative. Both conceptual and methodological issues seem to account for some of the apparent discrepancies in the literature. In particular, the types of variables chosen (a conceptual dimension) and the measurement strategy (a methodological dimension) seemed to account for the most variation across the studies. Future researchers are encouraged to be more cognizant of how conceptual and methodological features of their work will affect their outcomes.