UNDERSTANDING THE EXPERIENCES AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF ADOLESCENTS WHOSE PARENTS REMARRY AFTER DIVORCE
Abstract
The study was conducted to examine the experiences and quality of life the children have whose parent decides to remarry after they are divorced, irrespective of whether the custodian parent is remarrying, or the non-custodian one. The main goals of the study are; to understand how the parent’s decision of getting married again affects their child’s mental health, the possible struggles the child goes through during this time, how it affects their relations with their custodian and non-custodian parents, and to what extent the child is able to comes to terms and cope with the situation and who does the child blame for their broken family and who helps them throughout. Interviews of 10 such children; whose age ranged from 10 to 19 years, was conducted through a self-constructed interview questionnaire, along with a form that had their consent for the interview. By choosing the targeted sample size of 10 children who agreed and signed the consent form to be interviewed. Due to the SARS-CoV-1 pandemic and the restrictions that are associated with it, the interviews were conducted online, and all these interviews were transcribed to find out the themes. Major themes were derived from the data collected. The data was thoroughly analyzed after reading and reviewing the interviews, and the objective of the research was achieved; the parental decision of remarriage is a major event in the adolescent’s life and has a great impact of the child’s mental health, lifestyle and their perspective towards marriage. The research also concluded all the emotions, experiences, and hardships that these adolescents experience and the significance of age in this aspect was also seen, as adolescence is an extremely vulnerable stage in every human’s life.
