The purpose of this study was to investigate how middle class men and women experience the process of marriage dissolution and seek to reconstruct their individual identity after marital separation. A field study was conducted with 16 middle class women and 16 middle class men, living in Rio de Janeiro. Their age range varied from 25 to 35 years (1st age group) and from 45 to 55 years (2nd age group). All subjects had been married once, were separated and had not remarried again. The data were obtained through semi-structured interviews. Relevant differences were not observed between the two age groups, although differences between male and female experiences were examined according to the following evaluation categories: willingness to separate, decision to separate, separation process and reconstruction of individual identity.
marital separation; willingness to separate; decision to separate; conjugality; individual identity