In this study, we examined the subjective narratives of two women in their early 30s who had experienced their parents’ divorce and were entering their early adulthood. We focused on the impact of their parents’ divorceon their lives and how their attitudes toward their parents’ divorce had changed, using Personal Attitude Construct (PAC) analysis. Approximately 13 years ago, we conducted a semi-structured interview survey onparental divorce with two research collaborators in their third year of college.
The results were examined from three perspectives: “the actualization of the question of marriage,” “the evaluation of fathers by adult daughters,” and “the meaning of talking about the experience of parental divorce as an adult.” Questions surrounding marriage become more realistic in early adulthood as people have more opportunities to witness the weddings of those close to them. We observed that sometimes, the experience of the collaborators’ parents’ divorce acted as a criterion for their own decisions, as they could see that they had the option of marrying and then divorcing.
In addition, we found that a father’s inconsiderate attitude and behavior undermines the trust between father and daughter, and results in the father not being respected as a human being by his daughter. We also found that once a grown “child” of a divorce is regarded as an adult, their parent may talk to them about facts from the past, or they may be informed of their separated parents’ family relationships by the people around them. To confirm one’s mature self and integrate one’s own life trajectory surrounding one’s parents’ divorce, an adult may find it meaningful to acquire multifaceted information and new perceptions related to one’s parents’ divorce and to talk to others about their experiences.
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