Abstract
The end of a relationship entails a significant change in one’s life. Separation of parents is defined as living in a household with only one parent or in a home where the parents are married but eventually stop living together as a couple. Typically, the experience of having a dysfunctional or unsatisfying relationship precedes the parents’ separation. This study aims to explore the lived experiences of young adults towards their parents’ separation, specifically: (1) to describe the lived experiences, advantages and disadvantages, towards parental separation; (2) to determine young adults’ specific attitudes towards parental separation; and (3) to identify the coping mechanisms regarding parental separation. Utilizing the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method, the study findings are the following: (1) Young adults experienced more disadvantages from parental separation than advantages. Most participants battled mainly with longing for parental support, early childhood responsibility, and delinquency. (2) Young adults displayed various attitudes regarding affect, mainly sadness, perplexity, anger, fear, frustration, and envy. Some of them displayed inappropriate behaviors towards social relationships, such as avoidant, apathetic, disrespectful, and violent behaviors. (3) Most young adults, primarily males, coped mostly through acceptance and forgiveness, social support, positive changes, optimism, and lessons from the situation.
