“Was it all smoke and mirrors?”: Applying the relational turbulence model to adult children’s experience of late-life parental divorce

Abstract

The present study utilizes the relational turbulence model (RTM) to illuminate adult children’s experiences of relational uncertainty and interference from partners following late-life parental divorce (LLPD). In-depth, semi-structured interviews with 25 adult children who had experienced parental divorce later in life revealed that adult children grappled with four broad themes of relational uncertainty: (a) parent–adult child relationship uncertainty, (b) parent as individual uncertainty, (c) divorce-related uncertainty, and (d) being a family uncertainty. Interference from partners was couched within adult children’s experiences of feeling caught and manifested as (a) disruptions to normative developmental stressors and (b) disruptions to maintaining family ties. The discussion highlights the theoretical implications of our results for the RTM and the larger divorce literature, along with practical recommendations to assist those grappling with LLPD.