My diploma work focuses on the issues of single-parent families in the Czech Republic and selected countries of the European Union from the perspective of social policy. I have selected those countries that border the Czech Republic, i.e. Slovakia, Germany, Austria and Poland. In the theoretical part of my diploma work I define family as an institution, its main functions, its historical development and its present changes. Further, I address the problems of single-parent and divorced parents from the psychosocial view, touching also on the subject from the perspective of the church. In conclusion to the theoretical part I address the social policies of individual countries. The practical part involves two pieces of research. The objective of the first piece of research has been to evaluate and compare statistical data from the social environments of the above mentioned countries with that of the Czech Republic. In the second part of research, by means of a questionnaire, I have sought the opinions and views of future family founders with regard to the issues of single-parents families.

by Kwok Yung, Florence. / Includes questionaire in Chinese. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-60 (2nd gp.)). / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Predictors of Parent and/or Child Adjustment in Single-parent Families --- p.3 / The Parental Loss Hypothesis --- p.3 / The Interparental Conflict Hypothesis --- p.4 / The Economic Hardship Hypothesis --- p.5 / The Life Stress Hypothesis --- p.6 / The Length of Separation Hypothesis --- p.6 / The Social Support Hypothesis --- p.6 / The Family Functioning Hypothesis --- p.8 / Purpose of the Study --- p.11 / Chapter II. --- METHODS --- p.13 / Subjects --- p.13 / Measures --- p.14 / Procedure --- p.20 / Statistical Analyses --- p.21 / Chapter III. --- RESULTS --- p.22 / Demographic Data --- p.22 / Descriptive Statistics of Predictors and Dependent Variables --- p.25 / Correlation between Predictors and Dependent Variables --- p.31 / Multiple Regression Analyses --- p.37 / Chapter IV. --- DISCUSSION --- p.44 / Parent and Child Adjustment --- p.44 / Financial Stress --- p.45 / Interparental Conflict and Parental Loss --- p.46 / Length of Separation and Socioeconomic Status --- p.47 / Accumulation and Co-occurrence of Stress --- p.48 / Family Functioning and Social Support --- p.51 / Limitations of this Study --- p.52 / Conclusion --- p.53 / REFERENCES --- p.55 / APPENDIX --- p.61

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)

In recent times, the incidence of single-parent families has increased rapidly with the principle cause being the rising divorce rate. The vast majority of these single-parent families are headed by women and a predominantly common factor in these households is the extent to which they are financially impoverished after divorce. This situation has given rise to the phenomenon known as the feminisation of poverty, where women are seen to make up the majority of the poor. This study examines the many varied factors contributing to this phenomenon and discusses some of the general solutions offered world-wide to address these poverty-stricken households. An assessment is then made of those legal solutions most appropriate for South Africa / Law / LL.M.

The number of single-parent families has increased dramatically in the world. In South Africa, this increase has partly been due to the increased number of deaths as a result of the AIDS pandemic. The purpose of this study is to explore experiences of widowers as single parents. The study proposes to elevate the view of single-parent families, which classes them as stereotypes of victimization, to where such families come to represent responsible archetypes. Unstructured in-depth interviews were used to obtain data from two Black and two White widowed single fathers. Thematic content analysis was utilized to identify emerging themes from the fathers' stories. Fathers in this study challenged the deficit model's view of single parenting which claims that these families are broken. As far as its applicability is concerned, this study may be beneficial to psychotherapists, single parents and society as a whole. / Psychology / M.A.(Clinical Psychology)

The purpose of the study was to investigate the possibility ofusingJlelational Theory as a basis for the design of a support group programme for divorced single-parent families. This programme aimed at improving their interpersonal relationships and then to form new identities realistically, thus helping them to self-actualise. The categories of involvement, experience and meaningful attribution as well as the stages of awareness, exploration, personalisation and change initiation formed the basis of the programme. The effects of marital disruption on the interpersonal relationships and identities of singleparent families were also examined through a literature review. Pre and posttest interviews were conducted individually with single parents and their children to evaluate the effectiveness of the support group programme. The pretest interviews were administered a month before the implementation of the programme and the posttest interviews done two months after to gauge the longitudinal effect of the programme. The interviews and the progranune included the following aspects : awareness, exploration and evaluation of relationships (including aspects such as parental and spousal conflicts, parent alignment and parent availability, sibling rivalry and parent-child interaction); awareness, exploration and evaluation of identities (including identity conflicts stemming from role strain, role reversals and parent alignment); self-evaluation and selfactualisation. The conclusions from the literature study, the outcome of the support group progranune and the results of the interviews confirmed that marital disruption does adversely affect the interpersonal relationships of single-parent families and their formation of new, realistic identities. Single-parent families attribute unrealistic meaning to relationships and identities causing problematic relationships and identity conflicts. The nature and quality of the relationships also affect the formation of realistic identities resulting in a failure to self-actualise. In conclusion, the support group programme helped the single-parent families to attribute realistic meaning to their relationships and identities, resulting in improved relationships and the formation of realistic identities / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Universiteit van Suid-Afrika, 2001.

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Family resilience refers to the ability of families to return to normal family functioning or even to reach higher levels of functioning after experiencing adversity. The focus of the present study was to identify resiliency factors in single parent families with an adult HIV infected child. The Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation (McCubbin & Thompson, 1991) served as the theoretical framework in the design and the execution of the research. Both qualitative and quantitative measures were used in this cross-sectional survey research design. Twenty five single parents and their HIV Positive children ...

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

Zugl.: Erfurt, Univ., Diss.