Psychological processes affecting post-divorce paternal functioning

This chapter will discuss three inter-related psychological processes that affect the paternal functioning of non-custodial divorced fathers and illustrate their operation in three examples: of a disengaged father, a father in perpetual conflict with his ex-wife, and a father who continues to meet his children's needs. The processes are: mourning the many losses of divorce, separating the spousal role and identity from one's paternal role and identity, and seeing one's ex-wife and children as distinct and separate from one another. All of these processes are essential to coping with the "absence-presence" that characterizes the father's post divorce reality: the absence of his spousal role and presence of his paternal role. This chapter will end with practical suggestions for clinicians.