Post-Divorce Parenting and Co-Parenting in Times of Crisis

This study examines how divorced single parents make sense of their parenting and co-parenting experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and the February 6, 2023, Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes in Türkiye. Using an interpretative phenomenological analysis design, the study draws on two-stage, semi-structured online interviews with 23 divorced parents who had been officially divorced for 1-5 years, lived with at least one child under the age of 18, and had experienced the crisis conditions addressed in the study, including direct exposure to the February 6, 2023, earthquakes. The analysis generated four interrelated themes: the fragility of co-parenting under crisis, the asymmetrical concentration of parenting burdens, the child's emotional burden within interparental tension, and the boundary-based reorganization of co-parenting. The findings show that crises did not simply add external stress to post-divorce family life; rather, they reactivated unresolved tensions around child-centered coordination, caregiving responsibilities, information sharing, boundaries, and decision-making with the former spouse. Participants' narratives further indicate that, although crises intensified relational fragility and parenting stress, they also prompted some parents to establish more limited, functional, and child-centered forms of communication. By making visible the intersection of divorce, crisis, and co-parenting in the Türkiye context, the study suggests that post-divorce support services should include crisis-responsive guidance on boundary-setting, child-centered information exchange, and gender-sensitive distribution of parenting responsibilities.