Constructing a new framework for understanding children’s accommodation of parental separation

Abstract

This chapter shows how responses to the question which asked respondents how they felt about their childhood experience as they looked back now were categorised according to the level of satisfaction (Continuum 1) and level of acceptance (Continuum 2) they expressed. Where these coincided, a respondent’s level of accommodation of parental separation could be determined according to whether they showed a high, medium or low level of accommodation. Where they did not their account was seen to ‘lack continuity’. These levels became the central category for analysis of respondents’ accounts enabling aspects and clusters of experience influencing their level of accommodation to be identified. A range of factors and common experiences were identified allowing a new framework for understanding children’s accommodation of parental separation and post separation changes to be constructed. The framework is explained in the chapter and readers are guided in how it can be interpreted to aid understanding of children’s experience.