Marital Relationships: Research and Intervention Issues: Divorce

Marital Relationships:
Research and Intervention
Issues: Divorce and family media4on; Children’s groups on divorce; Stepfamilies Research team: Monica Accordini, Vittorio Cigoli, Davide Margola, Costanza Marzotto, Giancarlo Tamanza
1. DIVORCE AND FAMILY MEDIATION
Key areas:
- Effects of divorce on children
- Interventions supporting families
Collaborations with:
- Civil & Juvenile Courts
- AIAF
- SIMeF (European Forum)
RP (2000): “Parenting after divorce between risks and resources:
What differential effects on children?” (PI: V. Cigoli)
RP (2006): “Family mediation vs. Family litigation” (PI: G. Tamanza)
Since 1997: Two-Year Postgraduate Master Program in Family and
Community Mediation (now at the 7th Edition)
2. CHILDREN’S GROUPS ON DIVORCE
Groupes Confidences
Québec, Canada
(since 1991)
Gruppi di Parola
Italy
(since 2006)
Groupes de Parole
France & Belgium
Children s Groups
UK (Scotland)
Goals: Allow children to share their emotions with peers, to put into words
their feelings about their parents’ divorce, as well as to share strategies
in order to cope with the important changes occurring in their life
Structure: 6-12 year-olds; 2 group mediators; 4 weekly group sessions;
parents in the last session only
3. STEPFAMILIES IN ITALY: FACTS AND DATA
Over the past 15 years:
n Divorce rates have more than doubled (+101%)
n Separations have also increased rapidly (+61%)
Currently:
n Second marriages have boosted (more than 350.000 in 2009,
constituting the 14% of all marriages)
(Gambini, 2007; ISTAT, 2009)
n More than 5% of all households are stepfamily households
n About 555.000 remarried families are currently residing in Italy
3. STEPFAMILIES IN ITALY: FACTS AND DATA
n Mostly made of a divorced or separated or widowed man
who marries a single woman
n Spouses are older than in European stepfamilies
n More highly educated and richer than first marriage couples
n Less complex: Children born in second marriages are rare
and so are couples in which both partners have been married
before
n Women are less likely to marry a second time
n Women in stepfamilies are more frequently employee than
housewives
3. STEPFAMILIES IN ITALY: AN EXAMPLE OF
ONGOING RESEARCH
AIM: Understand the characteristics of professionals that work
with stepfamilies in Italy and the US; investigate their
representations of stepfamilies
SAMPLE: 125 Italian psychologists & 45 American psychologists
RESULTS (Italian professionals only):
•  Lack of knowledge of remarried families and their specific issues
•  Tendency to overlap and confuse remarried and divorced families
•  Focus on divorced nuclear family and “children of divorce”
•  Lack of specific training on the topic and belief that no specific
instruments are needed
Main References
Cigoli V., Galimberti C., Mombelli M. (1989). Il legame disperante. Il divorzio come dramma di genitori e figli [The hopeless bond. The divorce as a drama for parents and
children], Cortina, Milano.
Cigoli V. (1998), Psicologia della separazione e del divorzio [Psychology of separation and divorce], il Mulino, Bologna.
Giuliani C., Iafrate R., Rosnati R. (1998), Peer-group and romantic relationships in adolescents from intact and separated families, Contemporary Family Therapy, 20, 93-105.
Cigoli V. (2002), Confini, gerarchia, triangolarità: per una clinica delle famiglie ricomposte [Boundaries, hierarchy, triangularity: The clinical intervention with stepfamilies],
Interazioni, 1, 11-25.
Cigoli V., Giuliani C., Iafrate R. (2002), Il dolore del divorzio: adolescenti e giovani adulti tra riavvicinamento e distacco alla storia familiare [The divorce pain: Adolescents and
young adults between closeness and detachment to their family history], Psicologia Clinica dello Sviluppo, 3, 423-442.
Marzotto C., Tamanza G. (2003), Séparation conjugale et transmission intergénérationnelle. Une évaluation empirique de l’efficacité de la médiation familiale [Marital separation
and intergenerational transmission. An empirical evaluation on the effectiveness of family mediation], in C. Rodet (ed.), La transmission dans la famille: secrets, fictions et idéaux
[Family transmission: Secrets, fantasies, and ideals], Harmattan, Paris, 22-54.
Marzotto C., Tamanza G. (2004), La mediazione e la cura dei legami familiari [Family mediation and the care of family bonds], in E. Scabini, G. Rossi (eds.), Rigenerare i legami:
la mediazione nelle relazioni familiari e comunitarie [Regenerating family bonds: Mediation in family and community relationships], Studi Interdisciplinari sulla Famiglia, 20,
71-104.
Bodenmann J.G., Charvoz L., Bradbury T.N., Bertoni A., Iafrate R., Giuliani C., Banse R., Behling J. (2006), Attractors and barriers to divorce: A retrospective study in three
European countries, Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 45, 1-23.
Bodenmann J.G., Charvoz L., Bradbury T.N., Bertoni A., Iafrate R., Giuliani C., Banse R., Behling J. (2007), The role of stress in divorce: A three-nation retrospective study,
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 24, 707-728.
Giuliani C., Bertoni A., Iafrate R. (2007), La fine del legame e i suoi motivi: una ricerca su soggetti separati [Relationship breakups and their reasons: A research on separated
subjects]. Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, 4, 909-931.
Marzotto C. (2009), Groupes de parole pour les enfants de familles divisées [Groups for children of divorced families], in L. Melina, C.A. Anderson (eds.), De l’huile sur le
blessures [Healing open wounds], Editions Parole et Silence, Paris, 10-20.
Browning S.W., Accordini M., Cigoli V., Gennari M. (2010). How therapists view stepfamilies: An analysis of Italian clinicians’ representations, in V. Cigoli, M. Gennari (eds.),
Close relationships and community psychology: An International perspective. FrancoAngeli, Milano, 15-33.
Emery R.E., Margola D., Gennari M., Cigoli V. (2010). Emotionally informed mediation. Processing grief and setting boundaries in divorce, in V. Cigoli, M. Gennari (eds.),
Close relationships and community psychology: An International perspective. FrancoAngeli, Milano, 54-64.
Marzotto C. (ed.) (2010), I gruppi di parola per i figli di genitori separati [Groups for children of divorced families], Vita e Pensiero, Milano.
Simon M., Marzotto C., Montanari I. (2010), La parole et le geste. Analyse de processus dans un groupe de parole pour des enfats en rupture de liens [Words and gestures.
Process analysis of a group for children of divorced families], in V. Cigoli, M. Gennari (eds.), Close relationships and community psychology: An International perspective.
FrancoAngeli, Milano, 133-146.
Valls C., Pérez-Testor C., Guardia-Olmos J., Iafrate R. (2010), Assessment of the familial relationships of young adult children of separated parents, Journal of Divorce and
Remarriage, 51, 491-507.