CONTINUITY AND CHANGE OF RELATIONSHIP WITH WIDOWED REPARTNERED PARENTS: ADULT CHILDREN’S EXPERIENCES

摘要

Late-life repartnering and parental death change family structures. Although the pain, parental death is a normative life event for adult children, whereas late-life repartnering in Israel is not. Experiences of adult children after death of one parent and repartnering of their other parent, has scarcely been studied. Our aim is to explore such experiences. Data based on semi structured qualitative interviews with 29 adult children was drawn from a larger study on late-life repatnering from an intergenerational family perspective in Israel. Findings indicate continuity and change in three domains of the relationship: 1. The parent’s ­priorities, 2. Family roles, and 3. Parent autonomy and adult child intervention. Findings are discussed using theoretical frameworks of the family life cycle and the life course while relating to cognitive, emotional, and behavioral experiences of adult children’s relationship with their widowed parents who repartnered in old age. Theoretical and practical implications are suggested accordingly.