{"id":{"repo_id":"penn","oai_identifier":"oai:repository.upenn.edu:20.500.14332/63002"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/penn/oai:repository.upenn.edu:20.500.14332/63002","repository":{"repo_id":"penn","name":"University of Pennsylvania","base_url":"https://repository.upenn.edu/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"From Loss to Growth: A Positive Psychology Framework for Men's Divorce Recovery","abstract":"Divorce is one of the most common and consequential life disruptions adults face, yet compared to the scale of need, existing recovery resources are inadequate. This capstone applies positive psychology to men's divorce recovery, proposing a peer-facilitated, men-only, closed-cohort support group as the intervention environment. Drawing on three bodies of knowledge: the empirical literature on men's divorce, the positive psychology literature on well-being and growth, and the applied literature on men's peer support groups, the capstone develops a disruption-to-flourishing model that maps the journey from acute loss to developmental growth across six recovery pathways. The proposed intervention fosters the growth described in the pathways by applying positive psychology mechanisms such as learned optimism, self-compassion, narrative reconstruction, meaning-making, character strengths, and agency in a group context. The support group environment overlays brotherhood as an overarching recovery mechanism that activates and amplifies the other mechanisms. This capstone serves as the cognitive and theoretical foundation for a men's divorce recovery group that the author intends to implement and offers a model for applying positive psychology to men's experience of divorce recovery more broadly.","abstract_html":"Divorce is one of the most common and consequential life disruptions adults face, yet compared to the scale of need, existing recovery resources are inadequate. This capstone applies positive psychology to men's divorce recovery, proposing a peer-facilitated, men-only, closed-cohort support group as the intervention environment. Drawing on three bodies of knowledge: the empirical literature on men's divorce, the positive psychology literature on well-being and growth, and the applied literature on men's peer support groups, the capstone develops a disruption-to-flourishing model that maps the journey from acute loss to developmental growth across six recovery pathways. The proposed intervention fosters the growth described in the pathways by applying positive psychology mechanisms such as learned optimism, self-compassion, narrative reconstruction, meaning-making, character strengths, and agency in a group context. The support group environment overlays brotherhood as an overarching recovery mechanism that activates and amplifies the other mechanisms. This capstone serves as the cognitive and theoretical foundation for a men's divorce recovery group that the author intends to implement and offers a model for applying positive psychology to men's experience of divorce recovery more broadly.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Scott Barentsen"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Tim Zeidner"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2026,"date_issued":"2026","date_published":"2026","updated_at":"2026-08-21T16:47:24Z","subjects":["Psychology"],"languages":["en"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/63002","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"source_record":{"url":"https://repository.upenn.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arepository.upenn.edu%3A20.500.14332%2F63002","prefix":"dim"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Tim Zeidner"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Scott Barentsen"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2026-07-30T14:52:34Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2026-07-30T14:52:34Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2026"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Dissertation/Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Psychology"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/63002"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Divorce is one of the most common and consequential life disruptions adults face, yet compared to the scale of need, existing recovery resources are inadequate. This capstone applies positive psychology to men's divorce recovery, proposing a peer-facilitated, men-only, closed-cohort support group as the intervention environment. Drawing on three bodies of knowledge: the empirical literature on men's divorce, the positive psychology literature on well-being and growth, and the applied literature on men's peer support groups, the capstone develops a disruption-to-flourishing model that maps the journey from acute loss to developmental growth across six recovery pathways. The proposed intervention fosters the growth described in the pathways by applying positive psychology mechanisms such as learned optimism, self-compassion, narrative reconstruction, meaning-making, character strengths, and agency in a group context. The support group environment overlays brotherhood as an overarching recovery mechanism that activates and amplifies the other mechanisms. This capstone serves as the cognitive and theoretical foundation for a men's divorce recovery group that the author intends to implement and offers a model for applying positive psychology to men's experience of divorce recovery more broadly."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Master of Applied Positive Psychology"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["From Loss to Growth: A Positive Psychology Framework for Men's Divorce Recovery"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Tim Zeidner"],"dc:creator":["Scott Barentsen"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2026-07-30T14:52:34Z"],"dc:date.available":["2026-07-30T14:52:34Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2026"],"dc:description.abstract":["Divorce is one of the most common and consequential life disruptions adults face, yet compared to the scale of need, existing recovery resources are inadequate. This capstone applies positive psychology to men's divorce recovery, proposing a peer-facilitated, men-only, closed-cohort support group as the intervention environment. Drawing on three bodies of knowledge: the empirical literature on men's divorce, the positive psychology literature on well-being and growth, and the applied literature on men's peer support groups, the capstone develops a disruption-to-flourishing model that maps the journey from acute loss to developmental growth across six recovery pathways. The proposed intervention fosters the growth described in the pathways by applying positive psychology mechanisms such as learned optimism, self-compassion, narrative reconstruction, meaning-making, character strengths, and agency in a group context. The support group environment overlays brotherhood as an overarching recovery mechanism that activates and amplifies the other mechanisms. This capstone serves as the cognitive and theoretical foundation for a men's divorce recovery group that the author intends to implement and offers a model for applying positive psychology to men's experience of divorce recovery more broadly."],"dc:description.degree":["Master of Applied Positive Psychology"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/63002"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:rights.uri":["https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"],"dc:subject":["Psychology"],"dc:title":["From Loss to Growth: A Positive Psychology Framework for Men's Divorce Recovery"],"dc:type":["Dissertation/Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-08-21T16:47:24Z"}