Women who divorce in midlife: the resilient reconstruction of their lives

The aim of this study was to address the dearth of South African literature on women who divorce in midlife with resilience. This study offers women’s perspectives on how they reconstructed their lives with resilience after divorce after long-term marriages during the developmental stage of midlife. A purposive expert elicitation sampling technique was used to select a homogenous sample of three South African women from the Western Cape. A qualitative research design utilising the Repertory Grid methodology developed from Kelly’s personal constructivist theory formed the overall framework. This facilitated individual personal constructs from the women before, during, and after the divorce process in which they reintegrated with resilience. Cognitive mapping, an extension of the Repertory Grid purposely designed for capturing a graphical representation of a personal construct system, was used for data analysis. It was evident from the findings that the women experienced divorce as a major disruption requiring emotional growth, strength, and adjustment. The women’s personal constructs revealed that while there were some similarities, they were unique in their experience of divorce and reintegration. While they did not embrace the same world views or values, the women collectively experienced a major disruption and managed to survive the disruption and associated stressors using protective factors such as family, friends, religion, spirituality, and focusing on their careers to reintegrate with resilience. This study highlights the opportunity for therapists to offer resilience-enhancing resources, techniques and skills in order to help individuals reintegrate with resilience after a disruption like divorce.