In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Manon Van Scheppingen about the most current research on marriage, divorce, and parenthood. They start with an overview of life transitions in young adulthood and what those transitions look like in a shared vs. a non-shared environment. They define personality and how various life transitions could possibly change personality. They provide an overview of Manon's self-esteem/motherhood paper and some of the data within this paper. They give an overview of Manon's divorce paper and some of the specifics of the results from that paper. They also talk about what life satisfaction looks like post-divorce and what the practical implications are of these studies.
Manon Van Scheppingen holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Tilburg University in Tilburg, Netherlands. She is an Associate Professor at Tilburg University where she conducts research on personality. Specifically, she examines life transitions and major life events such as marriage, divorce, and parenthood. You can find the articles discussed in this episode here. Find her on Twitter: @mavscheppingen