In this post-graduate work, the author has researched the effect the divorce of the parents has on young adults who are leaving home. In the theoretical part, she explains what a family is, the role of the father and mother, the types of attachments, how fast they develop and how they later reflect in a romantic relationship. The author also explores the divorce itself, what consequences it has on the children, how children in different year groups respond and the consequences it has on them once they grow up. In the end, she presents young adults, the development phases that they go through and how they deal with leaving home.
In the empirical part, research with eight participants is presented. The participants are young adults between twenty and thirty years old with the experience of divorced parents. The author used half-structured interview, which she prepared in advanced, and that covered several areas: the experience of parent’s divorce, the experience of leaving home, developing the feeling of self-worth, relationship with parents and starting and developing intimate relationships with peers. The results have shown that all the participants carry the weight of their parent’s divorce because they cannot talk about it with their parents. They long for a safe space where they could talk about their feelings regarding the divorce. They are certain that they will create a safe space for talking in their romantic relationships, first for themselves and their partner and later for their children. Leaving home isn’t directly linked with the divorce because the participants still live at home and are away only during the week due to college. There is however a strong attachment to the parent with whom they live, a strong feeling of guilt if they do not come home for the weekend and fear of losing this parent as well. All of this can lead to serious problems when it comes to leaving home. There is also fear from disappointing their parents which is very restricting when young adults want to develop their sense of self-worth.
We can conclude that the child-parent relationship is significant in all eras of life. Regardless if the parents get divorced or not, the child has to be raised in such a way that he or she feels independent and ready to leave home as soon as possible.
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