This study investigated a proposed model hypothesizing that parental divorce would directly effect romantic beliefs and attitudes, romantic attachment and relationship characteristics. A sample of 494 young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 indicated that parental divorce does have a negative impact on romantic beliefs, attitudes toward marriage and divorce, romantic attachments, and relationship characteristics when considered in the context of marriage. Those individuals whose parents divorced reported less positive attitudes toward marriage and more openness toward divorce. Those whose parents divorced reported less idealized romantic beliefs and less of a belief that love will find a way. Those who experienced parental divorce had a more fearful romantic attachment style and reported a lower chance of marriage to their current partner.

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Bakgrund: Psykisk ohälsa är ett vanligt folkhälsoproblem i Sverige. Psykisk sjukdom innebär inte bara lidande för patienten utan även för dess anhöriga, och särskilt för patientens minderåriga barn. Det kan vara svårt att kombinera psykisk sjukdom och föräldraskap då det minderåriga barnets grundläggande behov riskerar att försummas. Detta kan skapa en ohälsa och ett onödigt lidande som finns kvar hos individen även i vuxen ålder enligt stress- sårbarhetsmodellen. Det är sjuksköterskans ansvar att även se till patientens familjemedlemmars hälsa. Syfte: Att få kunskap om vuxna barns upplevelser av att ha haft en förälder med psykisk sjukdom under sin uppväxt samt hur de upplevt och upplever hälsa. Metod: Litteraturöversikt enligt Fribergs metod. Denna litteraturöversikt innehåller tio studier som är hämtade från Cinahl Complete, Medline with full text och Pubmed. Abstrakt lästes med helikopterperspektiv och både kvalitativa och kvantitativa studier valdes av relevans för studiens syfte. Författarna diskuterade likheter och skillnader i studiernas resultat. Teman och subteman definierades. Resultat: Tre teman definierades; upplevelser av ombytta roller, känslomässiga upplevelser samt upplevd hälsa som vuxen. Diskussion: Studiernas tre mest utmärkande resultat diskuteras i relation till Travelbees omvårdnadsteori om mellanmänskliga relationer, vad information till det minderåriga barnet har för betydelse och hur man kan arbeta preventivt för att främja upplevelsen av hälsa hos barn med en psykiskt sjuk förälder. / Background: Mental illness is a common health problem in Sweden, and may not only cause patient suffering, but also his or the patient`s family, particularly under aged children. Parents with mental illness may neglect or be less attentive to the children`s basic needs, and according to the stress-vulnerable model this may cause poor health under unnecessary life-long suffering for the child. It is the nurse`s responsibility to also ensure the patient`s family members´ health. Aim: To gain knowledge of adult children’s experiences of having a parent with mental illness during his or her childhood, as well as how they experience their own health. Method: Literature review by Friberg´s method. This literature review includes ten studies, which are taken from Cinahl complete, Medline with full text and Pubmed. Abstract was read by helicopter perspective and both qualitative and quantitative studies were selected. The authors discussed the similarities and differences in the results of the studies. Themes and subthemes were defined. Results: Three themes were defined; experiences of role change, the emotional experiences and experiences of health of an adult. Discussion: The three most characteristic themes of the study are discussed in relation to Travelbee's nursing theory of interpersonal relationships, the importance of information given to the underaged child, and how to work preventive in order to promote the experience of health in children with mentally ill parents.

South African society is exposed to the reality of violence and crime, and at the same time HIV / AIDS is claiming the lives of many parents. Consequently schools throughout the country have an increasing number of bereaved adolescents among their learners. The effects of parental death during the adolescent years make severe inroads into the cognitive, psychosocial and moral development of adolescents. These detrimental effects of parental death motivated the researcher to investigate the effects of teacher- facilitated group work on bereaved adolescents. A mixed (qualitative and quantitative) research method was used to investigate the said effects. Accordingly a questionnaire was designed using the Likert rating scale. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used as quantitative data collection tools for this study. The data from the BDI and BAI were tabulated. Structured interviews, games, personal documents and focus group interviews were used as qualitative data collection tools. The data were analysed and reduced and prominent themes emerging from data sources were identified and discussed. While bereavement is a very traumatic event for the adolescent, the study findings illustrate that teacher-facilitated group work provides members with various benefits which help them learn more about themselves and improve their interpersonal relationships, thus providing a supportive climate in which they could deal collaboratively with their bereavement. The findings also point out that group work provides the bereaved adolescents with a place where they are understood, where they can talk about their thoughts and feelings without being judged. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

Background: A wealth of quantitative literature exists exploring the impact of parental alcohol misuse on adult and child offspring. It is often proposed that children of alcoholics are at risk of experiencing a host of negative outcomes, many of which are said to persist into adulthood. Confusing and contradictory results have led researchers to identify a subset of offspring deemed to be resilient. Little remains known about the factors that influence who becomes negatively affected and who becomes resilient, or how these factors are experienced by individuals. The recent up rise of qualitative methodologies also suggest this divide is not clear, with offspring of alcoholics demonstrating a range of functioning. Aim: With this in mind, the current study aims to explore the lived experience of adult children of alcoholics to gather a richer understanding of how these individuals develop into the people they are today. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six individuals who grew up with at least one alcoholic parent. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse verbatim transcripts. Results: The analysis produced four master themes. These were: ‘Dealing with the loss of connection to parents’, ‘Feeling hopeless and helpless’, Struggling to stay sane’ and ‘I know who I want to be more than I know who I am’. The master themes and corresponding subordinate themes are discussed in relation to the relevant literature. Clinical implications, methodological considerations and directions for future research are also presented. Conclusions: This study provided insight into the lived experience of being an adult child of an alcoholic. It highlighted the challenges and struggles they faced in childhood and the ways in which they battled to overcome the difficulties they experienced to forge a preferred identity in adulthood. It also emphasised the importance of perceived parental rejection as the pathway to causing distress and the desire to be better than their parents as a pathway to resiliency.

The specific purpose of this study was to try and understand why unique experiences of living with an alcoholic parent could create developmental deficits which emotionally challenge COAs' when faced with the life lessons a college environment offers. This study offered four possible explanations for experiencing challenges in its theoretical background: (1) psychosocial development, (2) the epistemology of alcoholism and its effects on the family, (3) personality development and the concurrence of building resilience, and (4) the college environment itself, with the phenomenon of binge drinking--forcing COAs to confront family alcoholism. A total of 7 participated in this study--4 men and 3 women. Despite the dynamic differences in the answers overall, all 7 participants acknowledged one important concept. When the participants were asked about their own drinking habits, each participant said, though in different ways, they had to be careful with their drinking habits. Participants seemed to be aware that whether alcoholism is genetic or a learned addiction, they were at risk of becoming alcoholics themselves. This study found overall, as previous literature suggests, no matter how COAs are studied, they are found to be a heterogeneous population. Specifically, this study's results points out that they are indeed heterogeneous, yet similar in that all participants in this study, it could be argued, exhibit some vulnerability in regard to parental alcoholism.

Difficulties developing and maintaining intimate relationships are often attributed to adult children of alcoholics (ACAs). However, the focus of the literature has been on those obtaining psychological treatment and has primarily involved clinical impressions. The purpose of this study was to examine intimacy in the close friendships and love relationships of ACAs. Autonomy and intimacy in respondents' families of origin were also analyzed. Comparisons were made between ACAs currently in (n = 59) and not in (n = 53) therapy, and comparisons who had (n = 48) and had not (n = 77) received therapy. Alcoholics were eliminated. It was hypothesized that ACAs would score significantly lower than comparisons on love and friendship intimacy and autonomy and intimacy in their families of origin. Among the ACAs, those in therapy would score lower than those not in therapy. Hypotheses were tested using MANOVAS. ANOVAs were administered where there were significant differences, and Newman-Keuls contrasts further delineated the divergence. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to obtain explanatory data. The two ACA groups seem to represent distinct populations with those not in therapy failing to report intimacy differences previously ascribed to them. While all of the groups were similar in friendship closeness, only the ACAs in therapy had significantly less intimacy in love relationships. Furthermore, clinical ACAs differed from the other groups by having less family of origin health, more physical and sexual abuse, more maternal drinking, more depression, and more suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Family of origin health predicted intimacy in a love relationship. Family characteristics encompassing honesty, empathy and respect, which may or may not involve alcoholism, seemed to create an atmosphere of faulty parenting in the ACA clinical group which may have subsequently affected the child's intimacy in a love relationship. Results of the study support a developmental model and demonstrate the importance of including nonclinical ACAs as well as clinical comparisons in future research.

D.Ed. / Die motivering vir hierdie navorsing is die besef dat egskeiding 'n proses is wat noodwendig krisis en wanbalans in die lewens van alle betrokkenes in die gesin tot gevolg het. Dit kan die gesinslede etlike jare neem om weer aan te pas en selfvertroue in hul nuwe rolle en verhoudings te kry. Alle egskeidings word gekenmerk deur een belangrike eienskap, naamlik verandering. Sommige veranderings begin voor die fisieke skeiding en ander duur voort tot lank na die egskeiding. Verandering kan die klimaat in die gesin verbeter of verswak, maar dit dwing kinders altyd om aan te pas. Die sielkundige effek van egskeiding op kinders behoort dus op twee vlakke beskou te word. Die eerste vlak van verandering is waar kinders aanpas by die omwenteling wat die egskeiding meebring. In-diepte navorsing is reeds hieroor gedoen en toon dat die onmiddellike aanpassing na egskeiding vir kinders minder spanningsvol is — veral indien daar minder konflik en ontwrigting teenwoordig is. Die tweede vlak van verandering behels kinders se langtermyn-sielkundige aanpassing. Uit die literatuur is dit duidelik dat daar baie geskryf en gedoen is om ouers en kinders onmiddellik na hierdie krisis by te staan. Daar is egter min navorsing gedoen oor die langtermyneffek van egskeiding op kinders se lewens en hoe die egskeiding moontlik tydens volwassenheid onverwerkte trauma en emosionele probleme kan veroorsaak. Die navorser het die veld met haar eie stone as vertrekpunt betree. Hierna is fenomenologiese onderhoude met tien volwassenes tussen die ouderdomme van 28 en 35 jaar gevoer. Hul belewenis van hul ouers se egskeiding, wat tydens hul kinderjare plaasgevind het, is verken en beskryf. Die resultate toon dat hierdie volwassenes steeds worstel met onverwerkte wonde uit hul kinderjare, voortspruitend uit hul ouers se egskeidings. Hierdie onverwerkte wonde uit hul kinderjare het tot struikelblokke gelei wat hul verhoudings met hulself en met ander negatief beInvloed. Gevolglik is die geestesgesondheid van hierdie volwassenes nie bevorder nie en kon heelheid nie ervaar word nie. Hierdie navorsing het gelei tot die ontwikkeling van 'n model vir opvoedkundige sielkundiges om, tydens die proses van fasiliterende interaksie, volwassenes wie se ouers tydens hul kinderjare geskei is, tot heelheid te begelei ten einde geestesgesondheid te ervaar. Die ontwikkeling van die model het in vier stappe geskied. In Stap 1 is konsepte geldentifiseer, gedefinieer en geklassifiseer nadat die veldwerk afgehandel is. Guba se model is oorkoepelend gebruik om vertrouenswaardigheid in die kwalitatiewe metodologie te verseker. Dit verwys na die geloofwaardigheid, oordraagbaarheid, vertroubaarheid en bevestigbaarheid van die navorsing. In Stap 2 is die verhoudingstelling van konsepte gedoen, waarna Stap 3 gevolg het, wat die beskrywing van die model behels het. Riglyne om die model te operasionaliseer is in Stap 4 gestel. Stappe 3 en 4 is geIntegreer en is nie afsonderlik bespreek nie. Die model is gerig op die begeleiding aan volwassenes wie se ouers tydens hul kinderjare geskei is, deur die proses van fasiliterende interaksie. Tydens hierdie proses word die volwassenes begelei om die struikelblokke wat die egskeiding gelaat het, te identifiseer, hulle persoonlike hulpbronne optimaal te ontwikkel en hulle ware self te ontdek, tot persoonlike insig te kom en outonomie te verkry ten einde heelheid te ervaar en geestesgesond te leef.

This thesis has examined what long-term psychological and neurological effects that are apparent in children and adults who have experienced parental divorce. It was predicted that significantly more children and adult children from divorced families would have increased symptoms of mental disorders than children and adult children from married homes e.g., anxiety, depression, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. It was further predicted that parental divorce would negatively affect the neurological system in the offspring. The correlation between children of divorce and negative neurological effects was not found to be true. However, adult children of divorce have significantly lower baseline cortisol levels compared to adult children of marriage. Dysregulated cortisol levels are highly associated with the development of e.g., anxiety, depression, and brain damage. Parental divorce did not only influence how secretion of the hormone cortisol is regulated within adult children of divorce, but how both children and adult children of divorce psychologically adapt post-divorce. Children of divorce have for instance lower general well-being, more symptoms of anxiety and depression, lower self-esteem, and feel more stress than children of marriage. Adult children of divorce are more likely to experience marital discord, getting divorced themselves, anxiety and depression, lower academic performance, and substance abuse, etc. The result of the thesis suggests that children and adult children from divorced families are negatively affected, both psychologically and neurologically, regardless of age. Parental divorce and supplementary effects make it more likely for children and adult children to experience more symptoms of mental disorders.