Intergenerational consequences of parents' late-life divorce on their adult children's romantic and marital relationships.

Parents' late-life divorce usually occurs when their adult children are married or seeking a marital relationship. The effects of divorce on young children have been studied extensively, revealing psychological, emotional, and mental difficulties, and increased relationship troubles. Yet knowledge about the effect of late-life divorce on adult children's perception of marital/romantic relationships in societies that value self-determination alongside strong family ties is lacking. Accordingly, we examine the consequences of parents' late-life divorce on their adult children's experiences and perceptions of marital/romantic relationships, from the perspective of both generations in the family, in Israel. Semistructured, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted separately with 51 participants (28 adult children; 23 parents) composed of seven family units (n = 33) and nine parent-child dyads (n = 18) and analyzed using thematic analysis and dyadic analysis. The two themes identified were adult children's shattered concept of marriage and the lessons they learned from their parents' marriage and late-life divorce and apply to their own marital/romantic relationships. Findings within both themes revealed a gap between generations regarding awareness of the long-term consequences of late-life divorce on adult children's romantic relationships. Implications include raising the awareness of families and therapists to these consequences. Developing constructive communication may enable both generations to beneficially process emotions and perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).