Discovering and Explaining Parents' Lived Experiences of Co-Parenting after Divorce

Parenting after divorce is one of the most sensitive tasks for divorced parents and is one of the effective factors in children's mental health. The purpose of this study is to explore and explain parents' lived experiences of co-parenting after divorce. This study was performed qualitatively using Descriptive phenomenology method. The study population included all parents who had parenting experience after divorce. In this study, data saturation criterion was used to determine the sample size. Using purposive sampling, 12 people (female, male) were selected and interviewed semi-structured. Data were analyzed by Colaizzi seven-step method. The results of the analysis led to the identification of five main themes: The relationship between parents, accountability, </strong>supervision, parental challenges and Social-psychological harms in parenting. Parents focused on eliminating the other co-parent as a parental figure – just as their role as a spouse was eliminated after divorce – rather than concentrating on the task of parenting.