Post-divorce regret among Iranian women: a qualitative study

Background: Post-divorce regret a context-based phenomenon and in every community is affected by the personal, social and cultural factors of that community, this study was conducted to explain post-divorce regret among Iranian women.Method: This qualitative study was conducted from November 2015 to December 2017 in Tehran. 15 divorced women were selected through purposeful and snowball sampling. Data were gathered using indepth individual semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using content analysis method. Result: Four main categories including identity threat, losing independence, vague future and husband s vacancy, were extracted from the data. Results showed that many of the divorced Iranian women, due to the traditional culture of the society s lack of social support, do not have the ability to adapt to life after divorce and regretted their decision to divorce. Conclusion: Living with sorrow and regret leads to many physical and mental problems in these women. Therefore, it is necessary to provide the appropriate social and economic support for these women based on the culture of the society

Keywords:

Divorce , Regret , Iran , qualitative study