Thesis (LLM)--Macquarie University. Division of Law. / Bibliography: leaves 192-208. / Introduction -- The perceived problems and the new reforms -- The framework for children's matters in Australia -- Families and functions - regulating the Australian family -- Reorganising the gender hierarchy -- Men's movements, misconceptions and misidentifying the real issues -- Problems with "shared parenting": an ideal or a (rebuttable) presumption? -- Mediation not litigation -- Conclusion -- Bibliography. / In this thesis, I critically appraise the latest reforms of the Australian family law system and assess the underlying philosophy of these measures. I specifically analyse the introduction of shared parenting and mandatory family dispute resolution. My starting point is that legislative changes alone cannot be used as a means of social change. Legal models cannot function correctly if they reflect an ideal rather than social reality, and in light of the current reforms, the Australian family law system risks such a fate. The system, which presumes that parents share parental responsibility upon separation (and therefore during the intact family), does not represent social truth. It appears to make an assumption that shared parenting is the societal practice, but I believe the law is really being used to impose such an ideal. If the reforms are to be successful, I argue that substantial social and economic structural change is required, in order to break down the dichotomy between men's and women's roles, which continue to define the male role as economic and public and the female responsibility as care-giving and private. This is particularly important if the Government is genuine about its aim to make parenting gender neutral in practice and not just in theory. / The thesis demonstrates that the reform measures are a response to the perceived rather than real problems identified in the family law system, and that they are largely issues raised under the influence of fathers' rights groups. The response of the Government to remedy the system is therefore flawed as it is based on misconceived notions about the family law system. It incorrectly identifies judicial discretion as a fundamental cause of the problems and tries to replace it with a more rules-based approach to determining children's matters. I suggest that the real problems can be found in the continuance of deeply entrenched customs and gendered role constructions, and the remedies lie in their overhaul. The social culture that makes the mother the primary caregiver and allocates to the father diminished parental responsibility from the time the child is born needs to be transformed. A suitable legal response to the current impasse would be to begin by educating the public about the way the system works and provide counselling to families on how to structure their united life well before they reach the breakdown point. Assisting families while they are still functional, as opposed to when they are dysfunctional, would arguably make a large difference in how the family law system is understood. Moreover, it would be able to facilitate ongoing communication for separating couples and, most importantly, thereby uphold the best interests of the child. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 208 leaves

Text in Afrikaans / The adolescents touched by their parent's divorce often display certain behavioral problems, such as withdrawal, aggression, and deterioration in academic performance, total apathy and misconduct. These adolescents experience mixed feelings in their period of distress. When one gets behind the reasons for certain behavior, the adolescents usually confess that the parents' divorce affected them. Parents often do not think about the emotional implications their divorce has on their children. Authors differ about the age at which children are influenced the most by their parents getting divorced. This study confirms suspicions that although adolescents want to break ties with their parents, they still feel threatened when their parents split up. During serious conflict in the family, the divorce is sometimes perceived as positive. The study makes everybody involved with the adolescent aware of the emotional disruption and the influence a divorce could have on their daily functioning. / Die studie oor die belewinge van die adolessente in die enkelouergesing as gevolg van egskeiding, spruit voort uit waarnemings tydens die interaksie met adolessente wat deur die ouers se egskeiding geraak is. Sodanige adolessente toon dikwels sekere gedragspatrone, soos onttrekking, aggressie, verswakking van akademiese prestasie, algehele lusteloosheid en wangedrag. Wannneer hulle genader word, ontken hulle dikwels dat iets skort. Hulle wil nie anders beskou word as ander adolessente wat nie in dieselfde situasie verkeer nie. Die ondersoek toon dat adolessente gemengde gevoelens in hulle tyd van nood ondervind het. Wanneer wel agter die rede vir die teruggetrokkenheid of aggressie of verswakkende akademiese prestasie gekom word, erken adolessente gewoonlik dat die ouers se egskeiding hulle onderkry. Ouers dink dikwles nie aan die emosionele uirwerking wat hulle egskeiding op die kinders het nie. Skrywers verskil oor die ouderdom waarop kinders die meeste deur die ouers se egskeiding beinvloed word. Die respondente in hierdie studie bevestig vermoedens dat, alhoewel adolessente hulself wil losmaak van die ouers, hulle wel bedreig voel wanneer die ouers uitmekaargaan. Tydens ernstige konflik in die gesin word die egskeiding tog soms as positief ervaar. Dit beteken egter nie dat dit vir hulle maklik is nie. Wanneer daar voor die egskeiding min konflik is en die verblyfreelings daarna vir die aolessent aanvaarbaar is, is die aanpassingsproses gewoonlik makliker. Die studie maak alle betrokkenes by die adolessent bewus van die emosionele ontwrigting waaraan hy blootgestel word en die uitwerking wat dit op sy alledaagse funksionering kan he. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Voorligting)

The psychological effects on, and the experience of divorce by women and children are widely researched. However little data is available on how divorce affects men and how they experience a marriage break-up. This study aims to explore and describe the `voices' (experiences) of divorce from three men's perspectives. The randomly selected sample for this study consisted of three participants'. Data was collected in the form of the participants own written testimonials. Out of the written testimonials themes were identified and explored by the researcher. This was done from an ecosystemic epistemological stance within the post-modern paradigm, with the symbolic use of music / popular songs to further `enhance' the exploration and description of the research participants' experiences of divorce. A qualitative methodological design was followed, allowing `unique' and personal `meaning' and experience to emerge. This study's results were presented in the form of `integrative' and descriptive text. Overall the study explicated unique descriptions of men's experiences of divorce with the creative application of music to enhance descriptions and experiences. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

M.Litt. et Phil. / Divorce has become a widespread phenomenon in modern society. The high divorce figures indicate a change of attitude in society. Today divorce has become a highly probable and accepted event with fewer stigmas attached to it. For children, the divorce of their parents is a totally unplanned life event over which they have little or no control. It can therefore be defined as a non-normative idiosyncratic life event. This event inevitably leads to stress and can have certain deleterious, but also positive, effects on children. The specific effects that a child experiences will be determined by an interaction of variables, viz. his personality and temperament, the environment and his family home. Riegel (1975) states that development evolves out of crises which can therefore be constructive and have significant meaning. If the child can adapt and work through the event of divorce constructively the divorce can lead to growth, and not necessarily to stagnation and more problems. In the litigation of custody some development has taken place. Traditionally, young children were placed in the custody of their mothers, and the judges who did the assignments depended on information which was obtained from the parents. This resulted in decisions which were not always in the best interests of the children. To assist the judges in the placement of children, family advocates were appointed, thus fulfilling the requirements of the Act on Mediation in Certain Divorce Matters, (Act 24 of 1987). The task of the family advocate is to act as a watchdog on behalf of minors who have been subjected to divorce and subsequent litigation over custody disputes. Custody disputes cause tension and uncertainty for the children involved. The family advocate ensures that the children are exposed to as little disruption as possible during the litigation process, and also sees to it that the proposed ruling in connection with the children is in their best interests. The motivation for this research stems from the developments which have taken place regarding the placement of children after divorce where a custody dispute erupts, as well as those regarding the functions and purpose of the family advocate in the process. Questions can be raised as to whether the system of family advocates succeeds in its primary aim to act on behalf of the children, and whether the children involved in a custody dispute are not subjected to more stress as a result of the litigation. As few study regarding these questions has been done and many new questions have evolved, an exploratory study was conducted on the subject. The aim of this study was to evaluate children with respect to three variables, namely, 1) positive self regard 2) loyalty conflict between biological parents 3) depression. These evaluations were done on three groups, namely, 1) children in a nuclear family, 2) children in a single-parent family where divorce had occurred, and 3) children in a family where a custody dispute had taken place. A non-experimental method of research was used. To test the specific hypotheses the following test instruments were used: Bene-Anthony family relations, Draw a Person Test (D.A.P.), and Draw a Family Test (D.A.F.). The conclusions of the study are, firstly, that children in nuclear families do have higher self regard than children from single-parent divorced families, but these latter, in turn, do not have higher self regard than those from custody dispute families. Furthermore, children from nuclear families do not have less loyalty conflict than children from single-parent divorced families, but these latter do have less loyalty conflict than those from custody dispute families. Finally, children from nuclear families do suffer less from depression • than children from single-parent divorced families, but these latter do not have less depression than those from custody dispute families. As this was merely an exploratory study only tendencies can be deduced from the results. Further studies will require larger and better controlled samples. Further research and development in the field of custody litigation is necessary so that the whole family, and especially the children, can use this life crisis as an opportunity for growth.

LL.M. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The global rise in divorce since the 1960s has brought into question the idealised view of the nuclear family which has for centuries been awarded special status in western societies and has been regarded as the primary social institution. According to contemporary research parental divorce has become a reality for every one in six children in South Africa. Until recently, little consideration had been given to how divorce affects black South African families, as it was considered to be an occurrence which only took place in white, mainly middle-class, families. The proportion of black South African couples divorcing has been increasing over the past decade, and in 2008 was said to contribute to 35% of all divorce in South Africa. Most research to date on the children of divorce has focused on young white children and adolescents and is largely concerned with those who have found parental divorce particularly difficult, and are manifesting adjustment and other behavioural problems. The research which has been done on the effects of parental divorce on young adults focuses mainly on clinical studies with middle-class families based either in the United States or in the United Kingdom. This research, using an experience-centred, life-story narrative approach, explores the stories which young black South African adult women between the ages of 18 and 25 tell, to give account to the ways in which recent parental divorce has affected their lives, views on family life, and what it has meant to them. The use of an experience-centred, life-story narrative approach allows for a process of rupture, acceptance and re-storying to be accounted for, as the participant’s narrative shifts from past, to present and the future. Five young black women from a South African university each participated in two narratively sequenced semi-structured interviews based on McAdams’ personal narratives protocol, which includes six core themes, namely: Key Events, Significant People, Stresses and Problems, Personal Meanings and Life-Lessons, Future Script, and Life Theme. Crossley’s narrative analysis was then used to identify emergent themes and images in each individual narrative, after which they were woven together into a coherent story linked to previous literature. This study found that divorce involves a highly complex transition and reconfiguration process perhaps not fully accounted for in the existing idea and images associated with it. Despite being young adult women who had moved away from home and were engaged in their own lives, it became apparent that parental divorce was still a difficult and complicated experience, but that it is possible to tell both pessimistic and optimistic stories of parental divorce and its consequences.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:08:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_juliana_monteiro.pdf: 1389327 bytes, checksum: 40cd36e72ad5a8ecfcf3e6f6be64208d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-03-01 / The present study had the purpose to investigate how one of the members of the remarried couple, for at least two years, leaves this experience. The complexity and diversity presents in the remarried family structure, as well as the constant increase of this familiar configuration, indicates that the model o a nuclear family to which the remarried families are compared it is not an adequate parameter. Consulted literature stands out that the essential differences between these formats of family must be considered by the diverse professionals who work with the new familiar configurations. A field research was made based on a literature review in which eight people who inhabited in the city of Recife. The group of interviewed was constituted by five people of the feminine sex and three of the masculine sex, all remarried and with children of previous marriage, either biological or adoptive. From the theoretical recital and of the speech of the participants, seven categories of analysis had been proposed. The evaluation of the gotten material sample that the interviewed ones deal with the remarriage as an union of steady character, where they share not only the residence, but all the pertinent activities to a couple, in a recognized marriage for law. All the participants had been unanimous in affirming that the four first years of contact are sufficiently delicate, demanding of the couple biggest flexibility, attention and care so that a familiar integration occurs. We observe, also, a certain difficulty between the members of this family how to the exercitate each ones function / O presente estudo teve como objetivo investigar como um dos membros do casal recasado, há pelo menos dois anos, vivencia essa experiência. A complexidade e a diversidade presentes na estrutura das famílias recasadas, assim como o aumento constante dessa configuração familiar, indica que o modelo de família nuclear ao qual as famílias recasadas são comparadas não é um parâmetro adequado. A literatura consultada ressalta que as diferenças essenciais entre esses formatos de família devem ser consideradas pelos diversos profissionais que trabalham com as novas configurações familiares. Foi realizada uma pesquisa de campo, fundamentada na revisão da literatura, na qual foram entrevistadas oito pessoas que residiam na cidade do Recife. O grupo de entrevistados foi constituído por cinco pessoas do sexo feminino e três do sexo masculino, todos recasados e com filhos de casamento anterior, quer sejam biológicos ou adotivos. A partir da fundamentação teórica e do discurso dos participantes, foram propostas sete categorias de análise. A avaliação do material obtido mostra que os entrevistados tratam o recasamento como uma união de caráter estável, onde partilham não apenas a residência, mas todas as atividades pertinentes a um casal, num casamento reconhecido por lei. Todos os participantes foram unânimes em afirmar que os quatro primeiros anos de convivência são bastante delicados, exigindo do casal maior flexibilidade, atenção e cuidado para que ocorra uma integração familiar. Observamos, também, uma certa dificuldade entre os membros dessa família quanto ao exercício de seus papéis

Thesis (PhD. (Clinical & Applied Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / This study aims at developing an optimal psychological assessment procedure for determining primary residence allocation for children whose parents are divorcing. The research consisted of two studies: the first study focused on “translating” 13 identified legal constructs formulated by Justice King for safeguarding the best interests of children and the identification of suitable psychometric instruments that can be used to determine how effectively a particular family is functioning. These 13 legal constructs were converted into psychological constructs by three independent clinical psychologists. Following this a psychological assessment procedure for children and parents within a divorce context was developed incorporating the newly developed psychological constructs. The 2nd phase consisted of a sample of 39 families (26 families in the experimental group and 13 families in the control group). Six months later after primary placement the families were followed up in order to determine the psychological “health” of the families concerned using the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSE); Index of Family Relations (IFR); Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory (ECBI) and the Family Assessment Device (FAD). The means obtained from both the experimental and control groups were compared using the MANOVA analysis. The results from the RSE concluded that the self-esteem of children in the experimental group, improved significantly to those in the control group. The IFR indicated that families in the experimental group had improved significantly at resolving family problems. According to the ECBI the children in the experimental group with behavioural problems improved significantly after primary placement. In all children in the control group did not improve significantly. The Family Assessment Device therefore indicated significant family cohesion. In summary the results indicate that the families in the experimental group were functioning at a higher level in comparison to the control group six months after primary placement.

Bibliotherapy has been used as a therapeutic technique to assist clients to deal with a range of different issues in group as well as individual contexts. In this study, bibliotherapy has been used as an intervention to help six pre-adolescent children in a group setting deal with bereavement following their parents’ divorce. A qualitative research design has been implemented in which an individual pre-therapy interview was conducted with each participant to determine their issues related to their parents’ divorces, coping strategies employed as well as level of English proficiency before an appropriate book was selected. After five group sessions in which bibliotherapy and associated activities were used, each participant was interviewed individually to determine the success of the use of bibliotherapy in this intervention. According to the results, bibliotherapy can be successful in a group context to help pre-adolescents deal with their parents’ divorce. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

Divorce has become so prevalent in our present day society, that it is regarded as one of the most sressful and complex mental health crises facing children today. As parents are often under tremendous stress during the time of divorce, they may be incapable of provding the support and guidance children need. The purpose of this study is to present a group counselling intervention programme to assist children of divorce and to create a supportive group atmosphere in which children can share divorce-related feelings, clarify common misconceptions and reduce feelings of isolation. Findings of this study indicate that the acquisition of problem-solving communication and anger control skills help to reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, improve the self-concept and ultimately promote post-divorce adjustment. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)