Brand Carrie, Howcroft Greg, Hoelson Christopher Norman
a Psychology Department , Nelson Mandela University , Port Elizabeth , South Africa.
J Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2017 Sep;29(2):169-178. doi: 10.2989/17280583.2017.1345746.
Research on parental divorce suggests that the nature of the divorce process, as experienced by the child, is the most important factor in his or her post-divorce adjustment. Research regarding children's experiences of the divorce process has been limited and the adult perspective has dominated the discourse on divorce; only recently has research started to consider children's viewpoint. This article describes a narrative inquiry into the experiences and perceptions of parental divorce, of 9- to 10-year-old children. Its aim is to use children's stories of parental divorce to inform the practice of professionals working with such children.
The research adopted a narrative paradigm. Unstructured interviews were conducted with five children whose parents were divorced. Data were analysed thematically.
Seven themes were identified. The first theme explored children's endeavours to describe and explain parental divorce. An additional six themes were developed around the types of stories children told of the divorce process. The seven themes were: (i) What is a divorcement; (ii) Stories of loss; (iii) Stories of gain; (iv) Stories of change; (v) Stories of stability; (vi) Healing stories; and (vii) Complicating stories.
On the basis of the narratives elicited from children on parental divorce, this article proposes several guidelines for professionals such as psychologists, registered counsellors, social workers, and teachers as well as parents in their possible interventions with children. Some guidelines may also be of use to family and maintenance courts, and the government departments of health and education.
关于父母离异的研究表明，孩子所经历的离异过程的性质是其离异后适应状况的最重要因素。关于孩子对离异过程体验的研究一直有限，且成人视角主导了关于离异的论述；直到最近，研究才开始考虑孩子的观点。本文描述了一项对9至10岁孩子关于父母离异的经历和看法的叙事探究。其目的是利用孩子们讲述的父母离异故事，为从事与这类孩子相关工作的专业人员的实践提供参考。
该研究采用叙事范式。对五名父母离异的孩子进行了非结构化访谈。对数据进行了主题分析。
确定了七个主题。第一个主题探讨了孩子们描述和解释父母离异的努力。围绕孩子们讲述的离异过程故事的类型又形成了另外六个主题。这七个主题分别是：（i）什么是离婚；（ii）失落的故事；（iii）收获的故事；（iv）变化的故事；（v）稳定的故事；（vi）治愈的故事；以及（vii）复杂的故事。
基于从孩子们那里引出的关于父母离异的叙述，本文为心理学家、注册咨询师、社会工作者和教师等专业人员以及父母在可能对孩子进行的干预方面提出了若干指导方针。一些指导方针可能对家庭和抚养法庭以及卫生和教育政府部门也有用处。
