OBJECTIVE: Current theoretical and empirical evidences about the impact and the factors associated with the impact of parents' separation/divorce in children's adjustment were related and examined. METHOD: An aggregative literature review was made, using the keywords "divorce adjustment", "child divorce" e "divorce impact", from the databases JSTOR, PsycInfo, SciELO, and Medline and from reference books. RESULTS: Child unadaptive and adaptive responses are described, as well as potential positive results. Mediators and moderators factors of the impact of parents' separation/divorce in children's adjustment often referenced in literature are mainly discussed. Among these are: characteristics of children, financial problems, parents' psychopathological symptoms, quality of parenting practices and inter-parental conflict. DISCUSSION: Based on the existing results, and considering the divorce as a developmental transition, we put a hypothesis that adjustment problems showed by children's of divorce can be better explained by other factors than the divorce/separation by itself. Finally we assume a conceptual innovation that this familiar transition can represent a growth opportunity and developmental promotion.
Adjustment; children; divorce; co-parenting; inter-parental conflict