Improving The Mental Health of Children in Divorce By Alison Spirito and Joseph P. Spirito, Jr. High-conflict behavior during divorce may have a more significant effect on children than divorce itself.[1] Children who witness their parents’ high-conflict divorces suffer from preventable mental and emotional health problems at significantly higher rates than children from intact families or even divorced families where the parents exhibit low or no conflict.[2] While litigation often normalizes high conflict, Collaborative Law and mediation consistently succeed in severing it from the divorce process by promoting consensual dispute resolution and drawing on the unique skills of child specialists […]