Putting Children First : Proven Parenting Strategies for Helping Children Thrive Through Divorce

An internationally renowned authority on children and divorce reveals the latest research-based strategies for helping children survive and thrive before, during, and long after their parents divorce.

The breakup of a family can have an enduring impact on children. But as Dr. JoAnne Pedro-Carroll explains with clarity and compassion in this powerful book, parents can positively alter the immediate and long-term effects of divorce on their children. The key is proven, emotionally intelligent parenting strategies that promote children's emotional health, resilience, and ability to lead satisfying lives.

Over the past three decades, Pedro-Carroll has worked with families in transition, conducted research, and developed and directed award- winning, court-endorsed programs that have helped thousands of families navigate divorce and its aftermath. Now she shares practical, research-based advice that helps parents:

-gain a deeper understanding of what their children are experiencing

-develop emotionally intelligent parenting strategies with the critical combination of boundless love and appropriate limits on behavior

-reduce conflict with a former spouse and protect children from conflict's damaging effects

-learn what recent brain research reveals about stress and children's developing capabilities

Filled with the voices and drawings of children and the stories of families, Putting Children First delivers a positive vision for a future of hope and healing.

JoAnne Pedro-Carroll, is a clinical psychologist, researcher, consultant, and therapist. For twenty-five years, she was a senior researcher at the University of Rochester’s Children’s Institute and a member of the psychology and clinical psychiatry faculties. Dr. Pedro-Carroll founded and directed the Children of Divorce Intervention Program, and her work has earned numerous awards. Dr. Pedro-Carroll is an adviser to the Sesame Street Resilience Project’s Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce and Separation. She has been married for thirty years, and is the mother of seven children and stepchildren.