The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant stress for individuals, couples, and families. Divorced and separated couples with children face unique stresses amid the pandemic. This mixed-methods study explored these challenges among 296 divorced and separated parents: namely 204 women formerly partnered with men, 34 men formerly partnered with women, and 58 women formerly partnered with women, who were surveyed during Summer/Fall of 2020. Participants described legal, financial, and coparenting challenges. Those who were not yet divorced described difficulties filing for or finalizing their divorce because of court closures and lack of responsiveness from legal professionals. Those who were already divorced also faced legal challenges, such as being unable to obtain a court date to modify custody arrangements. Financial challenges included renegotiating financial support obligations in the context of job loss. Salient coparenting conflicts, explored through closed- and open-ended questions, included communication issues, different views on virus risk mitigation behaviors, financial issues (especially for those not yet divorced), and transitioning between households and handling remote schooling (especially for those with shared physical custody). Participants elaborated on COVID-19-specific challenges, revealing that (a) lack of communication or agreement regarding shared strategies for risk mitigation reflected and exacerbated challenging dynamics between coparents, (b) remote schooling was often the site of disagreement when one parent felt that they were doing more than their fair share of coordination and oversight, and (c) different perspectives on science were expected to lead to future contention when making a joint decision about whether to vaccinate children. Findings have implications for family and legal professionals working with divorced, divorcing, and separated parents.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行期间离婚和分居的父母


COVID-19 大流行给个人、夫妇和家庭带来了巨大的压力。在大流行期间，离婚和分居的有孩子的夫妇面临着独特的压力。这项混合方法研究探讨了 296 名离婚和分居父母所面临的挑战：即 204 名曾经与男性有过伴侣的女性、34 名曾经与女性有过伴侣的女性以及 58 名曾经与女性有过伴侣的女性，这些人在 2020 年夏季/秋季接受了调查。参与者描述法律、财务和共同抚养的挑战。那些尚未离婚的人表示，由于法院关闭以及法律专业人士缺乏回应，申请或完成离婚很困难。那些已经离婚的人还面临着法律挑战，例如无法获得修改监护权安排的法庭日期。财务挑战包括在失业的情况下重新谈判财务支持义务。通过封闭式和开放式问题探讨了显着的共同养育冲突，包括沟通问题、对病毒风险缓解行为的不同看法、财务问题（特别是对于那些尚未离婚的人）以及家庭之间的过渡和处理远程教育（特别是对于那些已经离婚的人）共同的实际监护权）。参与者详细阐述了 COVID-19 的具体挑战，揭示了 (a) 缺乏关于共同缓解风险策略的沟通或共识，这反映并加剧了共同父母之间的挑战动态；(b) 当一位家长认为他们所做的协调和监督超出了应有的范围，并且(c) 在共同决定是否为儿童接种疫苗时，对科学的不同观点预计将导致未来的争论。 研究结果对与离婚、离异和分居父母打交道的家庭和法律专业人士具有重要意义。