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In this study, the nature of the home environment, the characteristics of the parent/child interaction, parents' childrearing orientations, and parents' self-descriptions were examined prior to divorce (while the families were still intact) and then again following divorce. The sample consisted of families recruited from an ongoing longitudinal study of children's ego and cognitive development initiated when subjects were 3 years old. Only those families in which parents had divorced after the first assessment were included in the sample. Family function was assessed when children were 3, 4, 6, and 12 years old. In general, results indicated that parental functioning declined in important ways years before divorce actually occurred. Before the divorce, mothers were unavailable emotionally and physically to their children and were more involved with their own careers and activities. After divorce, economic pressures and the competing demands of family and career on the mother combined to further depress the quality of life for children in single-parent homes. (MP)