This dissertation concerns itself with the task of creating a pastoral model in order to offer care for the young ladies who experience the trauma of rejection and shame when they have fallen pregnant out of wedlock within the church, resulting from the painful suspension. It was motivated from the author’s personal experience of being suspended while pregnant out of wedlock and her understanding that suspension is not meant to shame or hurt anyone. Through Group Therapy, the author used her understanding of Christian hope, and by creating a positive conversation among these young ladies. The focus and hope of this dissertation is to research the problem of suspension, in order to help the clergy and lay leaders in their role as pastoral caregivers. However, this dissertation would have been of no use, if it did not attempt to create a model for caring which will empower lay leaders and the clergy to become pastoral caregivers towards young ladies who fall pregnant out of wedlock. <ul> <li> Firstly, the author will try to clarify the problem faced by the young ladies.</li> <li> Secondly, the author will seek to bring an awareness of this problem to the church through its prophetic voice.</li> <li> Thirdly, the author hopes to create a model of pastoral care that will not only care spiritually for young ladies, but will also meet their emotional needs.</li> </ul> / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

No abstract available / Dissertation (MA (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / MA / unrestricted

No abstract available / Dissertation (MA (Theology) : Practical Theology)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Over the past forty years a tremendous number of women have entered the labor market, removing stay-home motherhood as the most dominant female occupation. The linkage between the change in the labor market and change in family structure has drawn a lot of attention from social scientists, and it is on this linkage that this analysis is focused. An essential dimension of this changing behavior is the sharp rise in out-ofwedlock childbearing. The central issue of non-married motherhood is more related to the diminishing willingness to marry than a changing attitude toward fertility. In a setting where individuals choose marriage because of the gains from joint production of child quality as well as the division of labor, the declining gains from specialization for men influence potential spouse selection. Men and women with fewer labor market prospects become less desirable, and consequently a marriage market with more positive assortative mating will be observed. The increase in female labor market participation is larger for highly-educated women but the decrease in marriage rates is more characteristic of less-educated women over this period. What drives these changes can be explained by using a simple economic theory, the fundamental concept of which is that couples with lower labor market prospects also face lower gains from marriage because of the increases in femalemale relative wages in the less-educated and black groups. A narrowing of the gap between male and female wages would reduce the gains from division of labor and lower the incentive to marry. In addition, when the marriage market becomes more positively assorted, low educated men and women are less likely to marry each other. Our empirical results indicate an increase in the homogeneity of wages between spouses over this period regardless of whether we control for education. In particular, black couples are more positively assorted than white couples although the trend converges by the end of the century. We also show that the marriage market is tilted towards better-educated men and women over the period. These findings are consistent with the theory which explains why single motherhood is more concentrated among lesseducated women.

A l'heure actuelle des centaines de femmes de par le monde sont concernées par le problème des ‘agounot. Il peut aussi bien s'agir de femmes auxquelles le mari refuse la délivrance du Guett (acte de divorce religieux) que de maris disparus et dont la mort n'est pas avérée au regard du droit rabbinique. Il peut également s'agir de femmes liées par l'obligation de procéder soit au Lévirat (Yiboum) soit au « déchaussement » (‘Halitsa), lorsque leur mari est mort sans laisser de descendance. Chacun des cas évoqués a des incidences différentes, non seulement pour la femme concernée mais aussi sur le statut des enfants qu'elle serait amenée à avoir dans le cadre de sa nouvelle union. C'est le problème du mamzer, spécifique au judaïsme. Il justifie la volonté des Rabbins de trouver une solution juridique au problème des ‘agounot. C'est ce qui a poussé nombre de rabbins, à travers différents pays et époques, à instaurer des mariages à clause résolutoire afin de palier ces problèmes. Ce cas est donc d'une actualité brûlante, d'autant plus qu'il montre à quel point les Rabbins recherchent des solutions (dans les limites du droit) pour résoudre des cas qui peuvent s'avérer dramatiques. / At this time, hundreds of Jewish women are considered as ‘agunot. This is one of the most serious problems for the Jewish people in our era. This situation can be the result of either of the following circumstances: a husband who disappears and is not considered dead by rabbinical authorities, a husband who refuses to grant the get (religious bill of divorce) to his wife or a brother-in-law who does not agree to perform the religious ceremony of ‘halitsa (or yibum) with his sister-in-law, a ceremony which is necessary in case the husband died childless. If a woman concerned with one of these situations decides to remarry out of the range of Jewish law, it could have dramatic results, especially for the children resulting from this new union. They could bear the terrible statute of mamzer (child born from an incestuous or adulterous relation). For this reason, many rabbis – through times and lands – tried to find new solutions to solve this complex issue, for the benefit of both women and children. One of these consists in the enforcement of a clause, at the time of the religious wedding, allowing to annul the marriage in the future should the woman need it.

This thesis is based on four articles. In the first article, questionnaire data from a follow-upstudy (Article I) that aimed to explore social support, coping and resilience as predictors ofmental health in unwed young pregnant women and young mothers during placement in ashelter home were analysed. Nine shelter homes were invited to participate in the study (n ofpre-assessment = 250; n of post-assessment = 79). Percentages, paired sample t-tests, multipleanalyses of variance (MANOVA), and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse thedata. There were no significant changes in social support, coping or resilience between thepre- and post-assessment. The variability in the mental health scores from the follow-upassessment could be explained by the variability in coping, social support and resilience forbetween 14% of the variance in the BDI score and 36% in the GHQ sum-score. However,about 32% of the unwed young pregnant women and young mothers had a BDI score above26 suggesting the occurrence of a depressive disorder at the second assessment. Thequalitative part of the study (Articles II and III) attempted to investigate the reactions receivedfrom their significant others, and how these reactions influenced their pregnancy experience.Furthermore, their daily life experience during their placement in a shelter home is described.Seventeen unwed young pregnant women and young mothers aged from 12 to 18 wereinterviewed. Qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis were used to analyse thetranscriptions of the interviews. Significant others were often perceived as reacting to theunwed young pregnant women and young mothers with secrecy, repression and rejection. Theresponse of the unwed young pregnant women and young mothers to the significant others inrespect of their pregnancy was to feel detached, trapped, unworthy and ambiguous. Theresults of the thematic analysis (Article III) led to three themes: rules and regulations, therelationship with the staff, and the relationship with the other girls in the shelter home. Theresults indicated that the participating shelter homes were often not fulfilling the standards ofshelter homes according to the Malaysian national laws and the United Nations Conventionon the Rights of the Child. In addition, a mixed methods approach (Article IV) was applied toinvestigate the associations between the experiences of the unwed young pregnant women andyoung mothers in the shelter home and their social support, coping, resilience, and mentalhealth. Because of the nominal data, the findings from the qualitative analyses were quantifiedand jointly analysed with the questionnaire data using Spearman Rank coefficient. The analyses were done based on the interviews and survey with 17 unwed young pregnantwomen and young mothers aged 12 to 18 years. The mixed methods study emphasized thatthe unwed young pregnant women and young mothers have poor availability and adequacy ofsocial support and were at risk of developing mental health problems if untreated.

This thesis has examined unmarried fathers in two parishes of Umeå in northern Sweden during the period 1897-1937. The main focus is on the consequences that ensued the legislation that formalized men’s obligations towards children born out of wedlock, which was passed on June 14th, 1917. The period chosen for this thesis analysis is twenty years before and after 1917. This enables a comparison between the society of the late 19th century and a society smitten by a modernised social reform in the early 20th century. To investigate the subject matter, records of birth and baptismal have been studied with a primary focus on patterns concerning fathers of illegitimate children. Both parishes presented a considerably small number of unmarried fathers compared to married men, throughout the entire period. The town of Umeå had the largest overall share in comparison with the countryside. It was pre-supposed, based on previous research, that the social class to which most unmarried fathers belonged, were in the lower ranks of society. This turned out to be an accurate assumption based on statistics from both parishes presented in this thesis. The statistics did not present any men from the upper class as fathers of children born out of wed-lock. Monetary as well as societal pressure were identified as possible explanations why some men avoided fathering illegitimate children. All in all, the legislation was interpreted as some-what successful in Umeå; achieving an apparent reduction in total shares of unknown fathers, a rising number of pledged paternities and presenting a few examples of men sentenced to fa-therhood in court. The legislation also provided unmarried women with a voice in legal matters concerning their illegitimate children.

The parent-child relationship in South Africa has recently undergone revolutionary changes. These changes are especially evident in relation to guardianship, care and contact. <p.The parent-child relationship has been revolutionised from one where the paterfamilias had the right of life or death (ius vitae necisque) over members of the family who fell under his power, to one where children have rights and parents have responsibilities. In Roman law the original power of the paterfamilias was later limited and duties were placed on the paterfamilias. In Roman Dutch law parents had not only parental powers or rights over their children, but also parental duties which they had to perform. In both Roman law as well as Roman Dutch law the father of a child born out of wedlock had no parental authority whatsoever. This meant that such father did not even have a right of access to his child. Roman Dutch law was received into South Africa. The South African Children’s Act 38 of 2005 does not refer to parental power or parental authority, instead the term “parental responsibilities and rights” is used. Guardianship is defined similarly in South African law prior to the Children’s Act as well as in the Children’s Act itself. The Children’s Act replaces the term “custody” with the term “care”. The Act also replaces the term “access” with the term “contact”. The definitions of these terms in the South African Children’s Act are similar to the definitions found in South African law prior to the Children’s Act. However, the Children’s Act has revolutionised the concepts of guardianship, care and contact in a number of ways. Firstly, the father of a child born out of wedlock acquires automatic parental responsibility and rights in certain instances. Secondly, the mother of a child may enter into a parental responsibility and rights agreement with the father of a child born out of wedlock, who does not acquire automatic parental responsibility and rights, or with any other person. Thirdly, any person having an interest in the care and welfare of the child, this includes the father of a child born out of wedlock and grandparents, may approach the court for an order granting them guardianship, care of or contact with a child. In South African law the best interests of the child standard has been applied for a number of years in matters concerning children. The best interests of the child standard is enshrined in section 28(2) of the South African Constitution, 1996 and in the Children’s Act. The rights of children in South Africa are protected in the South African Constitution, as well as in the Children’s Act. The trends evident in the Children’s Act, such as the emphasis of parental responsibility, and the protection of the rights of the child, are in line with trends in both international law (found in international conventions) as well as foreign law (for example, in the Children’s Acts of Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and the United Kingdom) and enhances the evolution of children’s rights. / Thesis (LLD (Private Law))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Private Law / unrestricted

No description available.

This dissertation looks at the position of the unmarried father in South Africa with regard to obtaining access to his illegitimate child. The writer has focused on three distinct eras in South African family law: the position of unmarried fathers in terms of: the common law; Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act; and the Children's Act. The writer has further focused on a case study. This is to emphasis the difficulty which unmarried fathers have when attempting to go through the courts to have access to his child. In terms of South African common law, fathers of illegitimate children did not have any form of parental authority over the child. The mothers of illegitimate children have full parental authority over such children. Access in terms of South African common-law is seen as an incident of parental authority. Unmarried fathers nevertheless had the right to approach the high court to obtain access to their children, if the mother of the child refuses to allow the father to have such access. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, there was an overwhelming amount of applications brought by unmarried fathers in the high courts so as to obtain access to their illegitimate children. The case of Van Erk v Holmer 1992 (2) SA 636 (W) sparked victory for unmarried fathers when the learned judge held that all unmarried fathers of children have an inherent right of access to their children. This victory was short-lived. Subsequent case law and in particular the case of B v S 1995 (3) SA 571 (A) enforced the common law and held that unmarried fathers do not have an automatic right to their illegitimate children and that such fathers will have to apply to the high court for such access. Due to the increase in litigation in the late 1980's and early 1990's regarding a father's access to his child born out of wedlock the Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act commenced on 4 September 1998. The South African legislature adopted the approach taken in the case of B v S 1995 (3) SA 571 (A) and rejected the approach taken in the case of Van Erk v Holmer 1992 (2) SA 636 (W) ie the common law continued to remain the approach taken in South Africa. Legislators recognised that the approach taken in the Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act does not conform to the provisions of the African Charter of the Rights and the Welfare of the Child, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and equality and dignity provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. On 19 June 2006, the Children's Act was effected and will commence once promulgated in the Government Gazette. The writer then determines whether the Children's Act has in practice changed the position of the unmarried father. / JURISPRUDENCE / LLM