Date of Conferral

8-11-2026

Date of Award

August 2026

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Social Work

Advisor

Crissie Jameson

Abstract

Across the globe, divorce is a challenging situation that affects family relationships and disrupts social networks. Divorced women often experience a decline in their health and well-being immediately postdivorce. The problem addressed in this study is that divorcing women tend to experience more negative or undesirable impacts on their mental health (e.g., depression) postdivorce than men and often find involvement in church to be a source of support or added stress. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to investigate how recently divorced Black women describe how their involvement in church may have supported their mental health and resilience postdivorce. Informed by resilience theory and a thematic analysis, semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 Black divorced women who attended or continued attending church postdivorce and self-identified as religious or having spiritual beliefs or Christian faith. A key finding of the study was that during and after divorce, immediate family support was beneficial for the participants' mental health, helping them cope with the challenges experienced during divorce. Coping mechanisms involving spiritual practices and therapy were highly utilized during and after divorce. While having church support and nonchurch support was not mentioned as particularly supportive in nature for most participants, as some expressed not feeling supported during divorce and others preferred not to share their divorce with the church. The social impact implications of this study involve the potential to educate human services professionals and church leaders to become more sensitive and supportive of divorced women who may be stigmatized and help connect them to supportive resources.

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