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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:3371 |
| Date | 28 August 2012 |
| Creators | Pretorius, Anlia |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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