This dissertation is about post-divorce families. The central question is how family is constructed after divorce. The aim is to study how family relationships are negotiated, transformed and reproduced after the separation. The research is based on 24 in-depth interviews with twelve young adults, between the ages of 21 and 29, with divorced parents. Their narratives about their families are analysed using a theoretical framework inspired by the individualization theories (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim 2001; Giddens 1997, 1995) and the doing family perspective (Morgan 1996; Silva & Smart 1999a), especially focusing on the concepts of negotiation and family practices. More specific questions raised in the dissertation are how are family boundaries drawn by the young adults? How do the interviewees understand the new organization of their families, which has been renegotiated after the separation? What perception of motherhood and fatherhood can be found in the narratives? And, finally, to what extent are family relationships after divorce negotiated in the way that the individualization theories claim? The results show a quite complex picture of family life after divorce. While both parents are often described as participating parents, the family practices after divorce appear clearly gendered. The mother’s involvement in taking care of the child seems not to be negotiable in the same way as the father’s. Hence, motherhood appears natural and taken for granted to a much greater extent than fatherhood. The negotiations between the parents after divorce can be of both an explicit and implicit character according to the narratives, but yet another kind of negotiation are the indirect negotiations. In these negotiations, the child is used as a go-between or carrier, a position that seems to limit their own possibility to participate in the decision making. Another aspect that seems to diminish children’s participation is the principle of loyalty to both their biological parents. The results also show that the children’s living arrangements after divorce are characterized by changes and renegotiations rather than being permanent. The parents’ new partners are described in different ways in the narratives, however, they are often seen as turning points that have a major influence on the family relationships. The nuclear family as a normative ideal is present in all the interviews but in different ways. While some express an explicit critique of it, others regard it as something that they want for themselves in the future. What constitutes a family according to the narratives? Firstly, blood ties and formal relationships are pointed out. Secondly, the feeling of solidarity and closeness is viewed perhaps as the most evident element of family life. This feeling can be created by open communication as well as by spending time together on a regular basis. Thirdly, growing up together and/or sharing everyday life practices are also considered as vital to develop and maintain close family ties. This means that the family boundaries after divorce are renegotiated over time rather than permanent. These negotiations take place in a certain context, where gender norms, earlier experiences and other social relationships play an important role.

Research has long held that family of origin plays a significant, if not critical, role in mental health. The purpose of the present study was to provide theoretical evidence to support the feasibility of a new target for clinical intervention by demonstrating that identity style, the way individuals take in and process identity-relevant information, is a mediating factor between family cohesion and psychopathology. Secondly, this study aimed to provide empirical evidence for identity boundaries, or the cognitive barrier that dictates the assimilation and disposal of identity-relevant information, by linking identity style to one*s ability to differentiate the self from others. A total of 496 university students were surveyed using a self-report battery available via an online research database provided by the author*s institution. Results suggested that individuals adhering to the informational identity style had the highest degrees of self-other differentiation followed by the normative identity style and, finally, the diffuse-avoidant. Further, the diffuse-avoidant identity style (and by extension, diffuse identity boundaries) significantly and fully mediated the relationship between balanced family cohesion and psychopathology. Given that the diffuse-avoidant identity style is linked to a number of maladaptive decision-making and problem-solving strategies, interventions aimed at changing one*s ability to master their environment may have positive implications for the way that they amalgamate their sense of self which may, in turn, lead to improved functioning.

Drawing on structural family systems theory, this study investigates the relations among family boundary diffusion experienced during adolescence, psychological individuation, and adjustment, from the perspective of older adolescents and young adults. Previous research suggests that boundary diffusion, such as triangulation and parentification, are linked to a variety of negative outcomes for adolescents and young adults (e.g., Buchanan et al., 1991; Hetherington, 1999; Jacobvitz & Bush, 1996), although not uniformly so (e.g., Arditti, 1999; Rosenberg & Guttmann, 2001). Theorists have argued that diffuse family boundaries may hinder the psychological individuation process (Jurkovic, 1997; Lopez, Campbell, & Watkins, 1989), which in turn may be related to low psychological well-being among young adults (Lapsley, Rice, & Shadid, 1989; Mattanah et al., 2004). However, the consequences of some types of boundary diffusion, in particular parentification, may vary depending on the contextual fabric in which they occur (Jurkovic, 1997). Hence, this study explores the extent to which family structure (young adults with married parents versus young adults with divorced, single parents) and gender may impact the relationships among boundary diffusion, individuation, and adjustment. Four-hundred-and-four older adolescents and young adults drawn from the community and a university setting participated in the study. Roughly equal numbers of men and women from both married and divorced family backgrounds were recruited. Participants were asked to reflect back to their adolescence (ages 14 to 17) and completed questionnaires assessing triangulation and parentification experienced by mothers and fathers during this time period. Current psychological individuation from mothers and fathers as well as current general and relationship-specific adjustment were also assessed via self-report measures. As expected, results indicated that participants with divorced parents experienced more boundary diffusion than participants with married parents. Overall, boundary diffusion was reliably associated with poorer adjustment and less psychological individuation irrespective of gender and family structure. Within this general pattern of findings, one notable exception existed: parentification by the same-sex parent among participants with divorced parents appeared not to be related to adjustment, which stood in contrast to findings for participants with married parents. Triangulation, on the other hand, emerged as a consistent and reliable predictor of psychological individuation and adjustment irrespective of family structure and gender. Lastly, as hypothesized, psychological individuation fully mediated the relationship between boundary diffusion and adjustment for the overall sample. This model was also fully supported for women and partially supported for men. Intervention implications arising from this research, including the importance of addressing triangulation dynamics in families and the potential fruitfulness of attending to individuation themes for young adults with histories of boundary diffusion, are highlighted.