Much of current welfare policy directed towards the support of lone parents is intended to encourage earning as a primary responsibility for all, regardless of responsibilities for care. This thesis sets out to explore how these policy discourses diverge from or converge with the lived experiences of a sample of divorced or separated parents. The thesis analyses how individuals and their families experience the policy and legal process in the context of increasing levels of welfare conditionality. The ways in which the underlying assumptions inherent in these discourses intersect with the choices and preferences of the participants and their children are explored. In doing so, the thesis investigates the current gaps in knowledge around the potential impact of these policy developments on lone parents, non resident parents and their children as they re-negotiate their family lives post separation. The thesis contends that policy and legal structures could take a much greater account of care as both a practice and an ethic. A more holistic welfare policy model which regards interdependency as positive rather than negative could be fostered if we recognise that human flourishment comes from our relationships with others. I argue that the focus on employment as the primary duty appears to be informed by a flawed understanding both of the complexities of family relationships and of the realities of managing paid work alongside responsibility for domestic and care work as the sole adult in the home.

Text in Afrikaans / Die doel van hierdie studie was om die belewinge van die kind in die enkelouergesin te identifiseer. Die belewinge van skok, skuldgevoelens, woede, verwarring, vrees, onsekerheid, angs, oorbeskerming, sosiale verleentheid, ontoereikendheid, verwerping, verlies en verlange, smart en depressie is in die literatuur gevind. Daar is .ook positi.ewe belewinge gevind, asook dat belewinge onderdruk word. Ba.ie van die belewinge stem ooreen ongeag die oorsaak van die verlies, hetsy egskeiding of dood. Die empiriese studie bet bevestig dat onrealistiese betekenisgewing onderliggend aan bogenoemde belewinge is en dat die opvoedingsituasie problemati.es is omdat daar nie in die behoeftes van die kind voorsien word nie. Voorts is bevind dat faktore wat onderliggend is aan ongunstige belewinge in 'n groot mate ophetbaar is. Sekere aanbevelings is na aanleiding van die studie gedoen wat as riglyne gebruik kan word in die volwassene se bemoeienis met die kind in die enkelouergesin. / The object was to identify the experiences of a child in a single parent family. Experience such as guilt, anger, confusion, fear, insecurity, anguish, overprotectiveness, social embarrassment, inadequacy, rejection, a feeling of loss and yearning, grief and depression have been found in the literature studied. Favourable experiences have also been established as well as the fact that experiences are suppressed. Many experiences show a similarity regardless of the cause of the loss, be it divorce or death. The empirical study has confirmed that unrealistic meaning attribution is subjacent to these experiences and that educational problems exist due to the fact that provision for the needs of the child has not been made. Futhermore, it has also been found that factors 'Yhich are subjacent to these unfavourable experiences can, to a large extent be neutralized. Thus recommendations which can be guidelines for adult intervention with a child in a single parent family, have been made. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Voorligting)

Text in Afrikaans / Die doel van hierdie studie was om die belewinge van die kind in die enkelouergesin te identifiseer. Die belewinge van skok, skuldgevoelens, woede, verwarring, vrees, onsekerheid, angs, oorbeskerming, sosiale verleentheid, ontoereikendheid, verwerping, verlies en verlange, smart en depressie is in die literatuur gevind. Daar is .ook positi.ewe belewinge gevind, asook dat belewinge onderdruk word. Ba.ie van die belewinge stem ooreen ongeag die oorsaak van die verlies, hetsy egskeiding of dood. Die empiriese studie bet bevestig dat onrealistiese betekenisgewing onderliggend aan bogenoemde belewinge is en dat die opvoedingsituasie problemati.es is omdat daar nie in die behoeftes van die kind voorsien word nie. Voorts is bevind dat faktore wat onderliggend is aan ongunstige belewinge in 'n groot mate ophetbaar is. Sekere aanbevelings is na aanleiding van die studie gedoen wat as riglyne gebruik kan word in die volwassene se bemoeienis met die kind in die enkelouergesin. / The object was to identify the experiences of a child in a single parent family. Experience such as guilt, anger, confusion, fear, insecurity, anguish, overprotectiveness, social embarrassment, inadequacy, rejection, a feeling of loss and yearning, grief and depression have been found in the literature studied. Favourable experiences have also been established as well as the fact that experiences are suppressed. Many experiences show a similarity regardless of the cause of the loss, be it divorce or death. The empirical study has confirmed that unrealistic meaning attribution is subjacent to these experiences and that educational problems exist due to the fact that provision for the needs of the child has not been made. Futhermore, it has also been found that factors 'Yhich are subjacent to these unfavourable experiences can, to a large extent be neutralized. Thus recommendations which can be guidelines for adult intervention with a child in a single parent family, have been made. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Voorligting)