2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The family system in single-mother families and the process of recovery from crisis
| Project/Area Number |
16530444
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Clinical psychology
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| Research Institution | Saitama University |
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Principal Investigator |
HOTTA Kaori Saitama University, Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (10251430)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SAWAZAKI Toshiyuki Saitama University, Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (30226063)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2006
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| Keywords | single mother / single mother family / divorce / semi-structured interview / family system |
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| Research Abstract |
1 The family system of single-mother families with school age children
The aim of this study was to clarify the process of how single-mother families with school-age sons rebuild their family system and recover from the crisis. The main method was the interview ; four single mothers were interviewed four or five times each. In addition, participant observation of the single-mother families was performed.
The study found that school-age sons are likely to exhibit problem behavior around the time of the divorce. It also is common for the mother's parental functioning to be compromised at that same time due to fatigue from the divorce proceedings. Under such circumstances, it is easy for the mother and son to transfer each other's emotions and project unconsciousness on each other. The study showed that by re-engaging with society, these kinds of closed single-mother families are released from such patterns, and a subsystem between the father and son is formed with the separation of the mother and the son.
2 The narrative of adolescents who experienced parental divorce
This study comprised semi-structured interviews of thirteen adolescents who had experienced parental divorce from infancy through their middle-school years.
A narrative approach revealed that subjects created stories to overcome their perceptions of crises. And those stories highlighted four strategies : "problem externalization," with divorce as a problem for their parents, not themselves; "renewed acknowledgement of the parental role," with the assumption that the separated parent would continue his or her relationship with them even after divorce ; "personal choice," or the understanding they could choose whether to continue their relationship with the separated parent; and "minority identity," in that they saw themselves as members of a minority, as children from broken homes.
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Research Products
(6 results)
