Young Women’s Perceptions of Parents’ Romantic Relationships in the Context of Parental Divorce: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT

Few studies have explored young women’s spontaneous descriptions of their parents’ romantic relationships before divorce and their parents’ efforts in their marriage before deciding to separate. Twenty-two young women who experienced their parents’ divorce between their 11th and 17th birthdays completed qualitative interviews. Although parental conflict is an important predictor for children of divorced households, when asked to describe their parents’ romantic relationships, most young women described their parents’ relationship not by their level of conflict, but by the absence or presence of “couple-like” behaviors, the distribution of household chores, and instances when partners provided support to one another.

KEYWORDS:

• communal strength
• grounded theory
• parental divorce
• young adult

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the help of Robyn Kilshaw and Samin M. Hagigi in transcribing the interviews.