Thesis (Ph. D. (Social Work)) -- University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.) -- Brigham Young University. Marriage and Family Therapy Program, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-49).

Résumé The subject of this thesis is influence of parents' divorce on young adults. The thesis aims at family rituals and their changes after parents' divorce. The theoretical part of the thesis contains two chapters. The first one describes rituals, their types and their importance for children. The second one describes family, divorce and influence of divorce on the children. The research analyses forms of rituals in families before divorce and their changes during divorce and after divorce. The thesis also focuses on the participants' attitude to family rituals and changes of that in dependence of divorce and participants' attitude to one of the most important rituals of passage - the wedding. The purpose of this thesis is to answer the question, if parents' divorce has some influence on family rituals and the participants' attitude of them and which the view of the participants to the wedding and marriage is. The research demonstrates that parents' divorce has the influence on family rituals and attitude of the participants to family rituals.

In my disertation I'm going to focus mainly in divorce consequences on children, children's psychological condition and their future lives. Part of this disertation is also literary recherche which is focused on family, divorce and divorce consequences. Theoretical part is also drafter like that. We will also deal with family in historical context because we can find some connections with present in which divorces are becomming more and more common. Besides history we will deal with family functions and arrangings. In divorce part we will focus on different kinds of divorces. Chapter about after divorce child care is also included. The last chapter is focused on directly on consequences of a divorce. We are dealing with kids' psychological condition and life attitude. Practical part is focused on qualitative research done by in-dept interview. Participants were kids attending secondary school and adults whose parents went through divorce when they were attending secondary school and they are looking back to those events.

(in English): The aim of this thesis is to find out how shared custody influences lives of children. The theoretical part is divided into six chapters. In the first one, I focus on the issues associated with divorce. The chapter starts with the history of divorce rates in our country including present day divorce rate statistics and the description of what divorce proceedings look like and their effect on the decision making of childcare after divorce. I also talk about how children handle divorce and how it reflects on their adult life. In this context I mention certain organizations and institutions where parents and children can seek help in the time around the divorce. In chapter four, I focus on the types of childcare after divorce and compare its advantages and disadvantages. After that I examine how the media, general public, and professionals view shared custody. The theoretical part ends with a chapter on specific situations in which court can decide for shared custody. That is followed by qualitative research on how shared custody is evaluated by professionals, such as teachers, carers, pedagogical assistants, social workers, workers of advisory centre and psychologists.

<p>This thesis consists of three papers on the economics and structure of Swedish families.</p><p>Paper [I] examines the determinants of children’s educational achievement in Sweden. Special attention is given to the labour market work by mothers and fa-thers in terms of its influence on the educational outcome of their children, measured as grade point average (GPA) in compulsory as well as upper secon-dary school. The results show that there is a positive relationship between paren-tal income and GPA. Regarding the number of hours worked in the labour mar-ket, the results differ between mothers and fathers. Having a mother that works less than full time has positive effects on the child’s grades throughout the schooling of the child, whereas significant effects of the hours of work that the father puts in are found during upper secondary school only.</p><p>Paper [II] explores the role of financial surprises and match quality in the disso-lution of relationships. The analysis is carried out both for surprises in the short term earnings and surprises in the long-run earnings capacity. It is found that positive surprises in short term earnings have a destabilizing effect for a rela-tionship. Generally, a negative surprise in long-run earnings capacity for males has a destabilizing effect. However, if it is combined with a female positive sur-prise, the effect is stabilizing. Commitments become more stable the older the spouses are at the start, and if young children are present.</p><p>Paper [III] studies the role of unemployment in the dissolution of relationships by applying a two-step estimation method to an extensive data set, which con-tains information about young Swedish males and females. Unemployment is recognized as endogenous in the separation decision, and the results show that the effect of unemployment on separation is biased when unemployment is as-sumed to be exogenous in the separation equation. The probability of separation is found to be increasing with male unemployment, while female unemployment decreases the probability of dissolution.</p>

This thesis consists of three papers on the economics and structure of Swedish families. Paper [I] examines the determinants of children’s educational achievement in Sweden. Special attention is given to the labour market work by mothers and fa-thers in terms of its influence on the educational outcome of their children, measured as grade point average (GPA) in compulsory as well as upper secon-dary school. The results show that there is a positive relationship between paren-tal income and GPA. Regarding the number of hours worked in the labour mar-ket, the results differ between mothers and fathers. Having a mother that works less than full time has positive effects on the child’s grades throughout the schooling of the child, whereas significant effects of the hours of work that the father puts in are found during upper secondary school only. Paper [II] explores the role of financial surprises and match quality in the disso-lution of relationships. The analysis is carried out both for surprises in the short term earnings and surprises in the long-run earnings capacity. It is found that positive surprises in short term earnings have a destabilizing effect for a rela-tionship. Generally, a negative surprise in long-run earnings capacity for males has a destabilizing effect. However, if it is combined with a female positive sur-prise, the effect is stabilizing. Commitments become more stable the older the spouses are at the start, and if young children are present. Paper [III] studies the role of unemployment in the dissolution of relationships by applying a two-step estimation method to an extensive data set, which con-tains information about young Swedish males and females. Unemployment is recognized as endogenous in the separation decision, and the results show that the effect of unemployment on separation is biased when unemployment is as-sumed to be exogenous in the separation equation. The probability of separation is found to be increasing with male unemployment, while female unemployment decreases the probability of dissolution.

The main aim of this dissertation "Life context of a pupil of divorced parents" is to describe how parent's divorces influence children and their future life. In theoretical part I will define basic terms such as family, marriage, divorce and its causes. In the following part I will focus on after divorce childcare and reactions of children on divorce. Practical part is focused on both quantitative and qualitative researches. Quantitative research is conducted by questionnaire survey and qualitative research is carried out by in-depth interview. Participants in both studies were pupils who attend second grade of elementary school. The aim of this part is through a combination of questionnaires and interviews to determine how divorce affected these pupils.

The master thesis introduces the topic of a period of family breakdown. It focuses on the benefits and difficulties of assisted handover of a child between parents who undergo a problematic separation. The content of the literature review section describes the development of family breakdown and the process of transformation of the family as a whole into a new phase. Emphasis is placed on the risk factors and conflicts that arise during the break-up period and on the issue of highly conflictual divorces. It covers the means of trained professionals suited to help such families allowing the resolution of disputes. The focus is on assisted handover. The empirical part of a qualitative nature maps out the central topics related to the service of assisted handover of a child from the parents' point of view. Data analysis was processed using the method of thematic analysis based on semi-structured interviews with parents using assisted child handover service. The output reflects the significant areas of the parents' split-up, as well as the benefits and difficulties of the service of assisted handover service as described by the parents using this service.

My choice of dissertation subject was influenced by the fact that there is a increasing number of divorces in recent years. This fact is supported by data from the Czech Statistical Office, which imply that every second marriage ends in divorce. It is impossible to define a clear-cut cause of the trend, because the decision to get divorced is influenced by many factors. These include the increasing pace of social changes, different approaches to problem-solving and to life in general, a specific argument between the partners that leads to a deep and lasting disharmony between them and many others. A divorce is a painful matter for all those involved. It influences broad areas of everyday life and has consequences for the adults as well as for the children (in the case of a divorce where children were born during the marriage). When the family situation is so unsettled that a compromise is difficult to find, it is possible to use an institution or a facility, which can offer social counselling according to law no. 108/2006 of the Collection of Laws on social services, in full wording. We differentiate between basic and professional social counselling. In the case of divorce, professional counselling is appropriate and can be accessed for example via counselling units for families, marriages and interpersonal relations which have this service properly registered within their remit. The extent of the use of these services was the research subject of this dissertation. The aim of this dissertation was to ascertain if families going through a divorce are accessing social counselling to resolve their situation and with what effect. To accomplish the stated aim, three investigative questions were chosen. 1.From what sources are the families informed about the possibility to take advantage of social counselling? 2.How does taking advantage of social counselling help families undergoing a divorce to resolve the life situation? 3.What do the families gain as a result of taking advantage of social counselling? A qualitative research strategy was chosen to collect the necessary information, using a survey method. Two techniques were used firstly the questionnaire containing closed questions and secondly the technique of in-depth interviews of selected respondents. The research was split into two phases. During the first phase a questionnaire with closed questions was used to establish which of the families took advantage of social counselling during divorce. During this phase the basic research set S1 was formed by the subset of respondents that went through divorce. This totalled 47 respondents chosen by the "snowball sampling" method. Using this method the chosen subject recommends further respondents that fulfil the conditions of the research. All 47 respondents agreed to fill in the questionnaire. The second phase of the research involved interviews with respondents forming the selective subset S2. This subset was created using quota selection from respondents who answered YES to the first question of the questionnaire.This select set was formed by 5 respondents. The interviews were transcribed into a recording form and the gathered data was further classified based on predefined questions or areas of the research enquiry, followed by analysis and comparison with the answers of other respondents. The purpose of this dissertation was to show, based on research carried out, if and to what extent the service of social counselling is used, which opportunities it offers and how it benefits the people taking advantage of these services. It was clear from the results, that the utilisation of these services is limited by the fact that a significant number of divorcing families, for whatever reason, does not look for this help. Conversely, the respondents that used social counselling benefited from this service whilst solving problems associated with their divorce, often simplifying the process.