Judith Wallerstein

Judith Wallerstein (December 27, 1921 – June 18, 2012) was a psychologist who created a 25-year study on the effects of divorce on the children involved.

Career

Judith Wallerstein taught as the senior lecturer from 1966 to 1991 at the University of California, Berkeley. Wallerstein was a consultant for the Advisory Commission on Family Law to the California Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Justice, The Commission on Law and Mental Health, State Bar of California, and the California Senate Task Force on Family Equity. Judith Wallerstein's three best-selling books about children and divorce were: Second Chances, The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, and What About the Kids. She began her study in 1971 with Joan B. Kelly. She discovered that the effects of divorce are more long lasting than most assume.

Wallerstein's study exclusively examined middle-class Californians whose participants were pre-selected for therapy and psycho-analysis. She influenced a California court on child relocation, and was criticized by Richard A. Gardner. Feminists felt that Wallerstein was trying to encourage women to stay in bad marriage and discouraging divorce. The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts (Houghton Mifflin, 1995) Second Chances: Men, Women and Children a Decade After Divorce (Houghton Mifflin, 1996) Surviving The Breakup: How Children And Parents Cope With Divorce (Harper Collins, 1996) The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: A 25-Year Landmark Study (Hyperion, 2000)