Family Interaction Patterns Among Adult Children and Divorced Parents According to Bowen’s Family System Theory: A Case Study of Chinese Family in China

Recent years have seen a global trend that more and more adults experience the divorce of their parents. However, the impact of parental divorce on adult children is overlooked due to the independence and maturity of adult children. Existing studies also tend to focus on young children in divorced families as there is substantial evidence on the consequences of parental divorce that impact underage childrens physical and mental development. Parents divorce can remarkably affect adult childrens cognition of family relationships. As some literature has noticed, adult childrens relational uncertainty and complication in post-parental divorce demonstrate the importance of research in this domain. However,  little focus is on how this change in cognition of family relationships can impact family interaction. Therefore, a preliminary study was conducted to investigate the impact of parental divorce on adult children of divorce (ACOD) in China. The study adopted a narrative inquiry method to explore the family interaction patterns conversationally. The preliminary report shows that there are three patterns for ACOD, namely, support divorce type, avoidance type, and inability to intervene type, and those who grow up in high-conflict families can grapple with family uncertainty after their parental divorce. The intervention emphasises post-divorce parenting programmes and parental conflict resolution initiatives, which play a prominent protective role in the childrens long-term healthy development.