Experiences, perspectives, and challenges of college students whose parents are divorced.

摘要

Adjustment to college is more difficult for students whose parents are divorced. The following study examined qualitatively, using thematic analysis, the experiences, perspectives, and challenges of college students whose parents are divorced in order to contribute an answer towards the research question. The sample for this study was 9 undergraduate students from Midwestern state colleges in metropolitan and suburban areas. These participants were 18 years old or older, attending a 4-year program at a regionally accredited university, living away from home, whose parents were divorced at least two years prior to the start of college, were proficient in English, and not in therapy for a psychological problem such as depression or other mental disorder. The four themes derived from the thematic analysis were, adjusting to divorce strengthened skills in independence that helped the adjustment to college life, contradiction between perceptions of support vs. actual support, burden of extra travel and visitation, and motivation for reaching graduation is to earn a good paying career.