Coping resources and adjustment to divorce among women: An ecological model

The goal of this study was to examine the personal and environmental variables that explain adjustment to divorce among Israeli mothers. The research examined four dimensions of Fisher's (1977) model of adjustment to divorce: self-acceptance of divorce, disentanglement of the love relationship, symptoms of grief, and self-evaluation. In organizing the explanatory variables, the researchers adopted Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model, and examined the contribution of variables belonging to four different ecological systems: the ontogenic system, which included background variables and the divorced woman's sense of coherence; the microsystem, which included the quality of her relationship with her ex-spouse, and the presence of a relationship with a new partner; the mesosystem, which included the relationship between the father and his children; and the exosystem, which included the children's relationship with their grandparents and the resiliency of both the maternal and paternal parents. The women participating in the study demonstrated good adjustment in the dimension of self-acceptance of divorce and selfevaluation. However, their adjustment in the aspect of disentanglement of the love relationship was lower than the rest of the adjustment dimensions that were examined. The findings revealed that variables belonging to the ecological systems explained considerable percentages of the variance in the various adjustment dimensions. However, the set of explanatory variables is different for each aspect of adjustment. Sense of coherence significantly explained the women's adjustment in the dimensions of selfacceptance of divorce, symptoms of grief, and self-evaluation. In addition, the quality of their relationship with the ex-spouse was the main variable that explained their adjustment in the dimension of disentanglement of the love relationship. © 2008 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.