Socialno delo, Vol. 51 (2012), Issue 6
ARTICLES
Prolonged coresidence of parents and yound adults in Slovenia: Dimensions, factors and implications - 365, (Abstract)
Difficulty with defining various forms of domestic child abuse - 379, (Abstract)
Pain of rejection: Affective dynamics of infidelity and relational family paradigm - 389, (Abstract)
Social construction of parenthood and taking care of children with disabilities - 405, (Abstract)
Abstracts
Matka Kuhar
Prolonged coresidence of parents and yound adults in Slovenia: Dimensions, factors and implications
The article presents and analyses the prolonged coresidence of parents and their young adult children in Slovenia – one of the leading countries in this regard in Europe. On the basis of existing secondary sources and analysis of the database European Social Survey 2006, it analyzes and debates: dimensions of prolonged coresidence in an international perspective; interconnectedness of this phenomenon with other status passages; and factors that contribute to prolonged coresidence. On the basis of partial analyses the article contributes to a more in-depth and systematic understanding of prolonged coresidence, and at the same time points out potentially relevant and yet empirically untested aspects of leaving parental home timing and calls toward a more holistic, multi-dimensional analysis.
Keywords: young adults, parents, leaving home
Metka Kuhar, Ph.D. in Communication Studies, is an associate professor of social psychology; lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of social sciences and Faculty of social work, University of Ljubljana. Her work focuses on the psychology of interpersonal communication and relationships, as well as on youth studies. Contact: metka.kuhar@guest.arnes.si.
Ksenija Domiter Protner
Difficulty with defining various forms of domestic child abuse
Different aspects and forms of child abuse in a family environment are presented together with the issue of defining domestic child abuse. The author has found that several definitions have been established which define domestic child abuse and individual forms of this abuse. However, domestic child abuse and domestic violence are very complex phenomena with numerous and different specifics, which must be taken into account while defining different intervolving forms of domestic child abuse. What is happening with a child should be taken as the starting-point in defining domestic child abuse. In addition, she points out the awareness that domestic child abuse is not only an individual but also a social problem.
Keywords: children, violence, family, forms of violence, aspects of abuse
Ksenija Domiter Protner is employed at the secondary school Prva gimnazija Maribor and is a PhD candidate at the Department for Sociology of the Faculty of arts, University of Maribor. Contact: ksenija.protner@guest.arnes.si.
Barbara Novak
Pain of rejection: Affective dynamics of infidelity and relational family paradigm
Affective background of marital infidelity in the context of family therapy is presented. The results of this analysis from the point of view of the therapeutic process of a married couple show the values attributed to the meaning of affects and affective psychical constructs that protect the married couple from their deepest childhood traumas. Based on the assumption that the affair happens because of unconscious playing out of denied feelings and pain, it was examined what happened with the affects of fear and shame during therapy and if the affairs is an imagined relationship with a mother from early childhood that repeats in the present relationship in the form of affective yearning for closeness with a woman. Discourse therapy transcripts of married couple were analyzed with the SPAFF instrument, which encodes specific emotions in different relationships. Studies have shown that the onset of sadness was the essential turning point in the therapy, in that it freed the relationships and opened the way for the affects of fear and shame, as well as the vulnerability of the married couple. Especially the mutual revelations of pain and fear build a relationship on a more secure basis for a life without affairs.
Keywords: affair, fear, shame, relational family therapy, affect
Barbara Novak, a university graduate pedagogue, is a marriage and family therapy doctoral candidate. She is employed in Family therapy center in Kamnik. Fields of interests: marriage and family therapy, counselling, pedagogics. Contact: barbara.novak6@gmail.com.
Gašper Krstulović
Social construction of parenthood and taking care of children with disabilities
The paper highlights parent perspective of care for a child with severe disabilities. The research investigates the lives of parents involved in long-term care for a child with handicaps. It presents a holistic view on understanding their life system and gives the reflections on the quality of their lives. Parents often have to redefine the term “normal parenthood” that is socially conditioned. They are faced with a completely new role that society does not predict as a part of the norm. It is shown that taking care of a child with severe handicaps usually means that at least one of the parents must quit full time employment. It becomes impossible due to the time consuming care work. This also hinders the social network of a family. The paper also discusses systems of exclusion from schools and kindergartens and possible steps towards full inclusion and lessening the parents’ burden of care.
Keywords: construction of handicap, children with handicaps, disabled children, plurality of society, handicap
Gašper Krstulović is an intern in the field of social welfare and a postgraduate student at the Faculty for social work, University of Ljubljana. Kontakt: gasper.krstulovic@gmail.com.