Narratives from children of divorce: An exploration of stories of lived experience
Abstract
Narrative accounts help us to examine how individuals construct their lives as they experience changes within their family of origin. This research effort employs qualitative and interpretive methods in the investigation of narratives provided by pre-adolescent and adolescent children of divorce. Participants for this project were between eleven and fifteen years old, and their parents were legally divorced for at least two, but not more than five years. Participants provided their stories in intensive interviews conducted separately by the researcher. Individual case and thematic analyses explore the particulars of lived experience. Collective story analysis explores participants' accounts as a social category in terms of their commonalities and differences in coping with and speaking about their experiences of parental divorce. The final two chapters address the implications of communication, researcher position, and tentative conclusions regarding an optimal experience of parental divorce.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Rawlins, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Communication|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology
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