From Divorce to Remarriage: Understanding the Experience of Remarried Women in a Collectivist Society

ABSTRACT

This study explores the subjective experiences of remarriage among five divorced Malay Muslim women with children from their first marriages, who have since remarried. Using semi-structured interviews, their remarriage journeys were analyzed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four main themes – internal process, adjusting to a new marriage, relationships with others, and marital satisfaction – along with ten sub-themes were identified. These themes encompass emotional struggles post-divorce, acceptance of reality and fate, mixed feelings pre-remarriage, decision-making in remarriage, dynamics within couple roles and interactions, and relationships with children, in-laws, extended family, and ex-spouses, culminating in the joy and gratitude experienced in their current marriages. This study was informed by Carter & McGoldrick’s Remarried Family Formation Framework and Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model of Human Development, which together provided a robust theoretical lens for understanding the complexities of remarriage in a culturally rich setting. The findings offer significant implications for practitioners working with remarried individuals and highlight areas for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Experience
• collectivist society
• marital adjustment
• remarriage
• qualitative methods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).