M.A. (Social Work) / Divorce mediation is at this stage accessible mainly to those people married in terms of " the common law. One of the main reasons for this is that social workers lack the knowledge and skills needed to mediate custody during the dissolution of the customary marriage. This explorative-descriptive study aims to develop guidelines for social workers that can be used in resolving custody disputes between parties married in terms of the customary law. A qualitative approach using an inductive strategy was followed to achieve this aim. The research question was formulated as "what guidelines do social workers need to mediate custody during the dissolution of the customary memeqe": A literature review, focusing on the customary marriage and the dissolution of the customary marriage as well as the structure and process of divorce mediation, was firstly undertaken. Secondly a questionnaire was drawn up as part of the pre-test and completed by eight social workers working as family counsellors at the different Offices of the Family Advocate in the Republic of South Africa. The aim of this pre-test was to determine whether social workers are familiar 'with mediating custody during the dissolution of the customary marriage as well as to assess their needs in terms of knowledge and skills pertaining to the research problem. From the results of the pre-test as well as the literature study an unstructured interview schedule was compiled and used to guide a focus group interview with four respondents familiar with the principles of the customary union and the dissolution of the customary union. The purpose of the focus group interview was to identify guidelines social workers can use when mediating custody during the dissolution of the customary union. After having compared the results of the focus group interview with the relevant literature certain conclusions were drawn and recommendations made. In conclusion to this study guidelines were designed to be used by social workers when mediation custody during the dissolution of the customary marriage.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:13175 |
| Date | 09 February 2015 |
| Creators | Roux, Jacques |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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