A preventive program for the newly separated: initial evaluation.

A 6-month long preventive intervention program for newly separated persons was designed on the basis of an analysis of the literature that identified the major stressful elements in the separation experience. Following the implementation of the program, its impact was assessed by contrasting persons who were assigned to the program (n = 100) with newly separated persons who were randomly selected to serve as a no-treatment control group (n = 50). Of the nine dependent measures of adjustment used in this evaluation, five significant posttreatment differences were found, in each case favoring the intervention group. The nature of these significant differences is particularly encouraging in light of the preventively oriented objectives of the intervention program. Detailed analysis of program characteristics resulted in the identification of desirable program modifications that could be implemented when the program is reinstituted.