17 strategies would be expected from young children with limited cognitive and social competencies and their dependency on parents than those of the more mature and self-sufficient older child or adolescent (Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980). Theoretical Constructs Children's ability to comprehend divorce depends upon their age. Theorists have suggested that there are specific periods in children's lives when they are able to understand certain concepts and certain other periods when they cannot. Piaget's (1950) theory of cognitive development identified four stages of development, the latter three of which involve school-age children: the sensorimotor period, from birth to 2 years of age; the preoperational period, from 2 to 7 years of age; the concrete operational stage, from 7 to 11 years of age; and the formal operational period, from 11 years through adulthood. Piaget stressed that these age ranges represent normative ranges and that they are more clearly definable and understandable when the content of what occurs during these stages of development is examined rather than when they began. Piaget's notion of stages reflects and emphasizes the structural transitions that take place during different developmental periods, rather than a simple description of