O processo de divórcio e a coparentalidade: um estudo qualitativo com pais divorciados

Abstract

Nowadays, the word "family" suffered drastic changes due to the increase in the number of divorces, which is characterised as a prevailing social and cultural phenomenon. After the couple's breakup the term coparenting arises, defined by the way parents or the father figure involve in child's care. Therefore, the divorce and coparenting subject is becoming increasingly a relevant research subject, given the challenges and difficulties during this process. Consequently, this study aims to understand the relational and coparenting story of divorced couples with their underage kids with the purpose of exploring how the divorced subjects live and describe their divorces and coparenting situation and if there's any difference depending on the characteristics of the chosen participants. This study includes 10 participants, 5 males and 5 females, 2 to 8 years divorced and with underage kids. In order to gather data, a semi-structured interview was conducted individually - "História de relação, divórcio e coparentalidade", made for the study and adapted from The Life Story Interview of McAdams. For analysing purposes, the Nvivo 10 software was used. The results indicate the majority of the participants tend to approach more the divorce subject, rather than coparenting, referring to the reasons/signs of divorce (e.g. disagreements/marital problems) and the future's perspective of another relationship (e.g. availability to find a new partner and struggle to trust in a new partner) as the most important subjects on the divorce. It also appears that women are more focused on issues of divorce than on coparenting when compared to men. Also participants participating in a divorce initiative are more focused on divorce (e.g., personal issues, difficulties and conflicts) compared to the participants for the former partner's initiative.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	Portuguese
Supervisor	Ana Rita Conde Dias (Supervisor)