A grounded theory research on spirituality and resilience of women experiencing divorce

Divorce, an increasingly widespread social phenomenon, is a life event that has significant effects on women's lives both in terms of its consequences and the impact of gender roles. In this sense, it is thought that understanding the role of psychological resilience, which focuses on strengthening people in high-risk conditions, and spirituality, one of the greatest psychological resilience factors, in women's coping with the consequences of the divorce experience will contribute to social work research and practice. In this study, where women's divorce experiences are tried to be understood in terms of spirituality and psychological resilience, the multidimensionality of the phenomenon and concepts investigated is taken into account. The aim of the research is to understand how the experiences of divorced women are experienced on a personal and social level through the interaction of psychological resilience and spirituality. Based on this purpose, the grounded theory approach was preferred from qualitative research designs, as it allows for the acquisition of the experiential structure of two complex structures, such as spirituality and psychological resilience, in the sample of divorced women and the possibility of comparative analysis. The research was designed in three stages as in-depth interviews with divorced women, a focus group study with divorced women and an online focus group study with experts in order to access the narratives of the same experience at the individual/group level and to obtain the external testimonies of the experience from experts working with divorced women. In this context, individual interviews with 15 women, a single-session focus group interview with 5 women and a single-session online focus group interview with 7 experts were conducted using semi-structured interview guidelines prepared separately for each sample group reached through the snowball method. The obtained data were analyzed comparatively based on the principles of grounded theory both by the researcher herself and through the MAXQDA Qualitative Data Analysis Program, in parallel with the data collection process. The codes obtained as a result of the analyses were collected under 3 core categories and 26 subcategories. It was determined that the most important sources in ensuring women's psychological resilience are spirituality and social support/publicization experiences; that spirituality and psychological resources always have a contextual and fluid structure; The main results of the study can be listed as follows: the self-expression and world designs that women perceive through spirituality and resilience resources related to the dominating marriage process undergo a major change with divorce; that women rebuild their meanings, grow psychologically and their spirituality becomes authentic as a result of the dissolution of assumptions during the mourning process caused by divorce; and that they turn to a new, more differentiated self-form that includes self-confidence and independence. In addition, as a result of the analyses, a model proposal called "Divorce as a Shaking of the Ground: Reconstruction of the Self in the Interaction of New Spirituality and Resilience Resources" has been presented that will help us understand the new selves that divorced women construct in line with the interactions of their spirituality and psychological resilience.