imited because the families were recruited in such a way that it is not possible to draw inferences about the population they represent.
             Fortunately, a handful of researchers have conducted studies of large and diverse samples of children. The most impressive of these is the National Survey of Children (NSC), an investigation of a nationally representative sample of 2,258 children aged seven to eleven years who were assessed in 1976 (Emery 1988). Eighty percent of the families contacted in this stratified probability sample agreed to participate, and information on family functioning and the children's adjustment was gathered from children (a maximum of two per family), mothers (in 95% of the cases), and schools (for 1,682 children) (Lewis 1999). Various findings from the NSC are presented at different points throughout this book. Among the most important is that, in a sample of families representative of the population of the United States, children of divorce were found to be more likely to consult a mental health professional. Of the parents in the NSC sample who had divorced, 14% believed that their children had experienced problems in the past year that were serious enough to warrant some sort of professional help. Thirteen percent of the children from divorced households had actually seen a psychologist or a psychiatrist at some point in time. In contrast, among children living with their two biological parents, 6% were identified by their mothers as having had problems serious enough to require professional help, and 5.5% had actually seen a mental health professional (Salle 78).
             These figures must be interpreted with some caution because mental health contacts, as well as the mothers' views on the need for professional help, are potentially biased indicators. However, Salle also found that teachers rated children from separated and divorced families as showing more aggressive behavior than those whose parents had "very...