Speaker Information Request Form
To invite Elizabeth Marquardt as a speaker to your event, or to receive more information, please complete this simple form. If you have any problems, please call (212) 246-3942. For a summary of topics, see below.
Speaking Topics
Elizabeth Marquardt gives talks on the following topics. She’s happy to work with the needs and interests of your group.
Is There Any Such Thing as a “Good” Divorce?
One quarter of adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five has grown up in divorced families. Elizabeth Marquardt has co-investigated a pioneering national study of these young people, surveying 1500 young adults from both divorced and intact families and interviewing more than seventy of them at length. The results are in her book, Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce (Hardcover, Crown 2005 and Paperback, Three Rivers Press, 2006). Many experts maintain that there are “good divorces” and assure divorced parents that kids are resilient. The hard truth, Marquardt argues, is that while divorce is sometimes necessary, there is no such thing as a good divorce. An amicable divorce is far better than a bitter one, but even amicable divorces sow inner conflict in the lives of children, profoundly shaping their moral and spiritual lives. In her talk, she shares the stories of grown children of divorce, amplified with new data and practical suggestions for reaching out to these young people.
Ministering to One-Quarter of Today’s Young Adults – The Grown Children of Divorce
Today, one-quarter of young adults are children of divorce. Of those who were active in a church when their parents split up, two-thirds say that no one from the clergy or congregation reached out to them at that time. When they grow up, children of divorce are overall much less religious and much less likely to be part of a faith community. Their absence is a tragic loss for them and the church.
Learn how to welcome young people affected by divorce into the full life of your congregation with Elizabeth Marquardt, M.Div., author of a ground-breaking study on the moral, spiritual, and religious impact of childhood divorce, reported in her book Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce