The project was designed to provide a range of quantitative and qualitative information from a variety of sources. We collected information from:

• Court records on all randomly selected divorce cases
• Each child (n=104) by means of an interview and our specially designed KIDs Activity Book comprising standardised measures - e.g. measures of child behaviour, self-esteem, child-parent relationship, perspectives on divorce and parental conflict
• Each resident parent (n=70) by means of our specially designed KIDs Parent Questionnaire comprising questions on the family, the divorce and standardised measures - e.g measures of child behaviour, child-parent relationship, parent’s social support, parent’s well being.

The project was designed to provide matched data which allowed direct comparisions between children and parents perspectives on the same divorce-related issues.

As the schedule was semi-structured it offered scope for children to go beyond these topics and tell us about things which, based on their personal experience, they felt were relevant and important.

Children were interviewed by a named researcher during a home visit; they all chose to be interviewed on their own and to have the conversation tape recorded; they all decided where the interview should be conducted.

In analysing the interview data we depended on what children actually said to derive the categories we use in reporting findings.

We have collected a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data. Our analysis is ongoing and promises to give a distinctive insight into children’s perspective and experience of divorce, an insight which will be of valuable in extending current understanding.