Mothers’ lived experience of maternal separation: a phenomenological exploration

There is little literature on the topic of maternal separation from an existential philosophical perspective. An existential-phenomenological approach provides a thorough and organised analysis of maternal separation by examining the various aspects of human experience, including the physical, social, personal, and spiritual realms. An exploratory study was carried out to gain insights into the phenomenon of maternal separation by examining the subjective experiences of mothers who attended boarding schools, focusing on their lived experiences. A hermeneutic phenomenology methodology was selected that combined van Manen's approach with Structural Existential Analysis, as developed by van Deurzen (2014). Six mothers were selected through purposive sampling and two semi-structured interviews were conducted. The first interview focused on gathering their experiences of maternal separation related to boarding school, while the second interview focused on their current understanding of the maternal separation experience, with a particular emphasis on their relationships with key individuals in their lives. The mothers had to be over 30 years and had started attending boarding school between the ages of 5 and 13. The data analysis involved clustering common themes found among the participants' transcripts. Three main themes were identified: the emotional journey, being a mother, and re-evaluation. A structural existential analysis was performed on the themes, which showed that the loss experienced by the separation from their mothers influenced their parenting style. It was also found that their parenting approach perpetuated past patterns. The study findings elicited interest in the experiences of mothers of boarders, which is an area that requires further exploration. Additionally, the researcher recommends investigating the experiences of childless women who had attended boarding school.