Desmanches, costuras e remendos: a parentalidade pós-divórcio no contexto amazônico

Abstract

This research investigates the development of post-divorce parenting in the interior of the state of Amazonas, Brazil. It is grounded in the understanding that the family is a socially and historically constructed institution, and that divorce emerges not as a failure or social tragedy, but as a legitimate and increasingly frequent expression of contemporary family dynamics, challenging the rigid single notion of family model. The objective is to investigate the meanings of post-divorce parenting produced by parental figures who are residents of municipalities in the interior of the state of Amazonas. With a methodology grounded in historical-dialectical materialism and socio-historical psychology, the work is divided into two axes. The first consists of an integrative review of the Brazilian literature (2020–2025), analyzed using Thematic-Dialogical Analysis, which maps how parenting in the context of marital separation has been experienced in Brazil. It identifies five points of analysis: the persistence of structural gender inequality in parental responsibility, the intergenerational feminization of care, coparenting as a normative prescription, the emphasis on individual competencies, and parental alienation as a field of dispute. The analysis concluded that scientific production tends to locate the causes and solutions for conflicts within individuals, thereby naturalizing structural asymmetries. The second axis is Field research that investigated, through narrative and semi-structured interviews, the post-divorce parenting experiences of parental figures from municipalities in the interior of Amazonas. The empirical material was analyzed using the technique of Core of Meaning, resulting in three central cores, which respectively address: the distance between family idealizations and the concreteness of post-divorce life, marked by maternal overload, paternal absence, and precarity; motherhood being experienced as an inescapable destiny while fatherhood presents itself as a choice, often reduced to financial provision and strained by alliance conflicts and remarriage; and the centrality of the kinship network as a structuring pillar of Amazonian parenting, the attempt to break with the painful inheritances, and the projection, through dreams for the children, of a horizon of reparation. The results demonstrated that Amazonian specificities, such as river distances and the presence of traditional communities, directly configure care practices and the notion of family, which operates based on a community logic of kinship. It is expected that this research will contribute to the production of critical psychological knowledge that is sensitive to Amazonian specificities, fostering transformations in social, juridical, and legislative practices.