Dimensions of Post-Traumatic Growth Resulting from Parental Divorce among Young Iranian Women

Abstract

Parental divorce affects various behavioral, emotional, social, and academic outcomes, and children from divorced families are more likely to experience problems in their lives. This present study aimed to explore the dimensions of post-traumatic growth resulting from divorce parental among young Iranian women. A total of 20 young women living in Tehran, Iran, whose parents were divorced participated in this research. The data were collected by a semi-structured interview and analyzed by Marton’s proposed method. The findings of this phenomenography study revealed five outcome spaces of post-traumatic growth. Categories of description included post-traumatic growth in the behavioral dimension, academic-occupational dimension, spiritual dimension, ethnic relationships dimension, and meaning of life dimension. According to the findings, in Iranian society, culture, ethnicity, and religion play an important role in growth after divorce. In general, if they are mature and mentally prepared, they can cope with their parents’ divorce and grow in different domains.