The new beginnings program for divorced and separated families

In this chapter, the authors describe the impetus for developing the program, its underlying small theory, and the methods they used to develop the program content and activities. The theoretical orientation of the New Beginnings Program (NBP) change strategies are cognitive-behavioral. In addition, the authors will market the web-based program directly to divorced and separated parents and through partnerships with organizations, such as family courts, professional organizations, insurance companies, and providers of non-competing services for divorced and separating families. When they developed the NBP, there were very few experimental evaluations of programs for divorced families. Throughout the program, leaders promoted group cohesion by pointing out similarities in mothers’ experiences and reinforcing mothers for helping other mother’s problem solve. The NBP reduced children’s mental health problems and affected three of the five putative mediators in the expected direction-mother-child relationship quality, effective discipline, and children’s experience of divorce-related stressors.