ABSTRACT
Objective
This study explored how individuals with children from a previous marriage experience remarriage after divorce as family reorganization in a collectivist cultural context.
Background
Although divorce and remarriage have become more visible across collectivist societies, remarriage remains underexplored as a lived experience, especially for those entering new unions while managing ties with a former spouse, parenting responsibilities, and social judgment.
Methods
Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, the study drew on three semistructured interviews with each of eight remarried adults in Türkiye aged 30 to 50, all married for 5 years or less and with at least one child from a previous marriage. Twenty-four interviews were analyzed.
Results
Five interconnected themes were identified: the process of remarriage, coping strategies, spousal relationship dynamics, relationships with ex-spouses, and social judgments and stigmatization. Participants described remarriage as a cautious, emotionally mixed transition shaped by prior marital experiences, parenting after divorce, and the search for stability and social acceptance. Coparenting and ties with former spouses required ongoing boundary work, while women more often described stigma and moral scrutiny and men more often reported pressure to restore family stability.
Conclusion
For participants with children from a previous marriage, remarriage after divorce was experienced less as a new start than as reorganizing family life while managing past and present ties, parenting responsibilities, and the social meanings attached to remarriage.
Implications
Support for remarried individuals and families should address the unfinished presence of the previous marriage in everyday life, including cross-household parenting, former-spouse ties, and the social meanings attached to remarriage.