Q: How's the audio? Can you hear everything okay?

INTERVIEWEE #9: Yeah, I can hear you.

Q: I was going to use my headphones for this but unfortunately my headphone jack on my
phone is broken so I’m just gonna hope for the best
INTERVIEWEE #9: Oh .
Q: This is the first interview I’ve done so far so sorry if--
INTERVIEWEE #9: Oh. that’s okay, I’m nervous, I don’t know what you’re gonna ask me.
Q: Oh don’t worry, nothing will be held against you, and uh if it does I’ll get you to sign a waiver
or something I don’t know. [laughter]
Q: So I think I'm going to start off with just a pretty basic question, which is describe your family
life prior to the divorce or the separation of your parents?
INTERVIEWEE #9: It was the I guess it was... tumultuous there was a lot of fighting and things
like that prior to the divorce and things like that
Q: How old were you when your parents divorced?
INTERVIEWEE #9: I was [preteen]
Q: Okay so after your parents divorced what was family life after that like what would be the
circumstances like on the day to day
INTERVIEWEE #9: I guess it was pretty mundane but you know they.. they were still fighting .. it
was still..That turmoil didn’t really go away. They were still fighting and it was still yeah that
turmoil didn't really go away after the divorce
Q: Were you living with your mother or your father at the time?
INTERVIEWEE #9: I was living with my mother.
Q: and how did you feel upon first discovering that your parents were separating?
INTERVIEWEE #9: I wasn't really surprised I guess in a way it was kind of a relief because you
know when they said that they were getting.. that they were separating and were going to live
apart-- you know you think that things might get better or I thought things might get better so... I
guess maybe relief
Q: can you recall a specific central event that shaped your interpretation of your parents’
divorce? like anything that might have happened that kind of affected your thoughts and your
conclusions about what happened?
INTERVIEWEE #9: there was no single event, it was a buildup of several things that shaped
what i thought
Q: can you describe any difficulties you encountered with visitation arrangements and custody
arrangements?
INTERVIEWEE #9: they seemed to work that out pretty well. I was [a preteen] so it was kind of
up to me whether I wanted to visit my dad or not but he was mentally ill so I didn't really want to
go so I didn't visit him a lot during that time
Q: Can you recall any conflict or any arguments like between your parents at this time? because
I know you said it was up to you but did your mother or your father ever pressure you to go or
not go
INTERVIEWEE #9: no they were pretty good about that they didn't really pressure me they left it
up to me. Well, i take that back i think my mom kind of pressured me to not go because she was
upset with him i think that kind of bled over and shaded my opinion of my dad
Q: Can you describe any challenges you encountered when it came to school or any
extracurriculars? Did it affect your performance at all and were you having any trouble--
INTERVIEWEE #9: I'm sorry you're breaking up there can you repeat it?
Q: Can you describe any challenges you encountered during school and extracurriculars?
INTERVIEWEE #9: Well once my dad left it kind of left my mom a single mom so it was hard to
do any activities because we lived in a very small town and everything was far apart and there
wasn’t any bus service or anything and she had to work all the time so it was hard to take part in
school activities or anything like that
Q: do you think your performance in school was affected by the aftermath of the divorce?
yeah I do I think I could have applied myself better had things not been so you know difficult in
my home life
Q: so as for the financial situation in which you and your mom found yourself in do you feel
there were any hardships due to the aftermath in the outcome of the divorce?
INTERVIEWEE #9: yeah we had to go on food stamps and we had to ...there were a couple
local churches my mom would do the food pantry and there were some clothing closets.. I don't
know what they called them
Q: yeah I know what you're talking about
INTERVIEWEE #9: yeah I know it was pretty tough
Q: do you feel that your parents separation had an impact on your own romantic relationships
as you were becoming an adult and starting to explore that area?
INTERVIEWEE #9: that's a good question because I remember as I was dating I tried to make
sure that I wasn't letting my parents experience shade my own experience with relationships so
I had to sit down and really self reflect upon who I was dating and what was going on in my
personal relationships I don't know if that makes sense
Q: it makes sense.. so your interpretation of romance and love and relationships and dating...
you say that was affected? were you doing any kind of comparison when you were thinking
about your mother's and your father situation? if that makes sense.
INTERVIEWEE #9: I know that I try to ... it's a cliche but they always say you know girls want to
marry their dad when they have daddy issues
Q: right
INTERVIEWEE #9: I had to make sure that I wasn't doing that. I just try to reflect upon my
relationships to make sure I’m not doing that.
Q: do you think that just the fact that your parents divorced has an impact on whether or not...
for your considerations for divorce with your current partner?
INTERVIEWEE #9: yeah I would say so because I know what it's like to get divorced and I don't
want to do that I guess. I kind of view it as when you think about being with someone forever I
take that seriously
Q: so how to word this right when you first find out that your parents are divorcing do you think
initially that affected how you conceptualize love and companionship before you were maybe
mature enough to really sit down and reflect how it affected your concept of romantic love?
INTERVIEWEE #9: I'm sure it did someone trying to remember yeah I think it did I was pretty
anti-relationship and anti.. I don't know what the word is.. I guess it made me a little bit jaded
about that stuff
Q: so that is those are all the questions that I have, do you have any other reflection that you'd
like to share; anything that I didn't quite touch on with the questions?
INTERVIEWEE #9: well I saw your email but against the mental health stigma I think you said
your paper was about like the benefits of counseling or something I think that could have
benefited me at the time ...I don't know without really knowing what your paper’s about.. it's hard
to hard to think of anything.
Q: my paper was about basically advocating for evaluations like court-mandated evaluations for
Children of Divorce while they're going through the proceedings to kind of prevent any any
diagnosable mental illnesses as well as any emotional impairment as a result of the divorce and
the circumstances surrounding the divorce. and with the book I'm trying to kind of research and
at the same time advocate for kind of court procedures that would intervene especially since
divorce is at such a high rate... I mean there are inflated statistics here and there and nobody
really knows what the divorce rate is because the CDC hasn't been reporting it, but at the same
time divorce rate still remains pretty high... one in two parents or one in two children or whatever
INTERVIEWEE #9: yeah I definitely think that would have been helpful especially my situation
because my dad was dealing with mental illness at the time and I think that would have helped
the whole family if if we had gotten done counseling
Q: That’s kind of the road that I was considering going with the proposal at first. I was just
concerned with the children. and we do have laws in place to help children in some states has
experienced significant like emotional abuse or things that would affect their development in
adolescence I think it would be more helpful in a lot of the mild cases… not a lot of families have
crazy situation, it's just that the parents decide that divorce would be the best. but even a brief
bout counseling would reduce that that stigma against.. I guess counseling and having the
family together just to talk about the issues so there's not so much resentment built up over the
years and issues that kind of never really get addressed.
INTERVIEWEE #9: If you think of more follow-up questions you can call me back
Q: I didn't really know where two or what number was good to land on to my questions sources
on the internet say anywhere from 6 to 10. I don't want to repeat myself over and over again. Q:
thank you though I do appreciate this!
INTERVIEWEE #9: no problem at all
Q: I haven't quite decided yet but I may do kind of a general questionnaire or something that's
less like one-on-one but more for just collecting information to add another aspect of my
research but of course I'll email you with that information if that's something I do decide to do
INTERVIEWEE #9: do you need more people to interview? I'm sure my brothers will probably
talk to you
Q: Okay, I might substitute one of the interviews out or maybe even add a couple if I feel like I
need more content, but thank you
INTERVIEWEE #9: I'll talk to you later
Q: Bye, [name]