Extension-Based Divorce Education: A Quasi-Experimental Design Study of the Parents Forever Program

ABSTRACTThe field of divorce education is calling for greater rigor in evaluating program effectiveness and University Extension programs are no exception. Parents Forever, a University of Minnesota Extension divorce education program developed in the 1990s, conducted a quasi-experimental design study, with a sample of in-person class participants and a comparison sample of divorcing parents. Independent samples t tests were conducted between the unstandardized residuals of each group. In support of the program’s goals, results indicated positive program effects for several variables related to parenting practices, adult quality of life, self-efficacy, and parent report of child conduct problems and peer problems (p < .01). No effect was found for coparenting conflict, adult social health, and child hyperactivity, and marginal program effects (p < .05), both positive and negative, were found for coparenting alliance (–), positive parenting (+), child emotional symptoms (+), and child prosocial behavior (–).