Stresses and Strengths of Working Women in a Divorce Support Group

Abstract

This paper reports an explanatory-descriptive study of a sample of eight working women seeking a divorce from a union-based legal/social work program who participated in an eight week divorce support group. Questionnaires and scales were used to uncover the family characteristics of the clients who were predominantly African American. The lack of opportunities to learn job skills for promotions, the inability to continue the desired level of education because of a need to earn money, and having no partner to share responsibilities were primary stresses reported by divorced working women. Seeking spiritual support and an ability to redefine crises to make them more manageable were strengths used by the women to cope with family crisis.

Key Words:

• Divorce
• divorced women
• divorce support groups