Facilitating Forgiveness and Reconciliation in 'Good Enough' Marriages

27 Pages Posted: 28 May 2015

Date Written: 2014

Abstract

Scholars have found that the long-term effects of divorce on children’s well-being depend on the level of parental discord before the divorce. In cases where the level of parental discord was high, children’s well-being improved after the divorce. In contrast, where the level of parent discord before the divorce or separation was low, children’s well-being deteriorated after the divorce and these negative effects often lasted in adulthood. Studies have also found that marital enrichment programs with a forgiveness component can help couples experiencing marital dissatisfaction. This essay argues that lawmakers should educate parents seeking to divorce about the effects of divorce on children’s well-being and offer free marital enrichment programs with a forgiveness component to parents who wish to attempt to "save" their marriages.

Keywords: African American families, Latino/Hispanic families, custody, low-Income fathers, nonmarital children, nonmarital Families, shared parenting, and unmarried/never-married parents

Suggested Citation

Maldonado, Solangel, Facilitating Forgiveness and Reconciliation in 'Good Enough' Marriages (2014). Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal Vol. 13, No. 105 (2013), Seton Hall Public Law Research Paper Series 2015-04, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2610764

Solangel Maldonado (Contact Author)

Seton Hall Law School ( email )

One Newark Center
Newark, NJ 07102-5210
United States
973-642-8830 (Phone)
973-642-8194 (Fax)

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