This study focuses on the social workers’ use of family mediation in Port Elizabeth. A social worker, who is a family mediator, assists divorcing couples to have an amicable separation. However, divorcing couples are unaware of mediation preferring an adversary litigated divorce.
1 Background of the study
The majority of divorcing parents cannot resolve custody disputes because they fail to resolve interpersonal conflicts (Burke, McIntosh & Gridley, 2009; Amato, 2000; Cawood, 2010). In fact, the divorce process has a series of partially predictable events and emotions exhibited over some time (Emery, 2014). As a result, family-related disputes are best resolved through mediation before resorting to litigation (SALRC, 2016; Barsky, 2016).
Mediation is whereby a detached third party helps the disputants to reach a bearable agreement on their differences (Moore, 2003). Family mediation involves resolving disputes between the divorcing couple through an informal negotiation (Benjamin & Irving
…show more content…
According to Bardine, Holtz, Medoway and Srinivasa (2010:5), the end of apartheid in 1994 foreshadowed many changes in the divorce law in South Africa. Legal reforms brought about the recognition of customary marriages, which represented 32 percent of all marriages that were not recognised under apartheid. Similarly, apartheid had loopholes in addressing divorces between the indigenous people. Divorces were resolved through cultural and customary norms which demoted women’s rights and dignity. Furthermore, Bardine et al. (2010:7) stated that the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, 1998 (Act No. 120 of 1998) was implemented in the year 2000 to protect women by recognising customary marriages and divorce practices and introduced them into the mainstream legal system. These changes in the divorce law meant that “couples were more willing, ready and able to divorce” (Harkonen,
In this text, Deal (2014) explains that “one of the great ironies of divorce” (p. 130) is the need to cooperate with the ex-spouse, even if you hated him before the divorce. My family shows the complexity that divorce can bring to a family’s life, and the adults need to constantly monitor their own attitudes for the sake of the children. Deal encourages building communication and flexibility; however, his reminder to accept that neither co-parent can control the other’s household decision is one of
Introduction A century ago, divorce was nearly non-existent due to the cultural and religious pressures placed upon married couples. Though over time Canadians have generally become more tolerant of what was once considered ‘mortal sin’, marital separation and divorce still remain very taboo topics in society. Political leaders are frowned upon when their marriages’ crumble, religions isolate and shun those who break their martial vows, and people continue to look down on those who proceed to legally separate their households. With that being said, couples do not just decide to get a divorce for no particular reason. There must be something driving them towards marital dissatisfaction and further, driving them towards divorce.
This study found that divorced women are four times more likely than men to be in poverty, even though the poverty rates have steadily decreased since 1992 (Gadalla, 2008). The author, Tahany M. Gadalla, attributes the 1997 Amendments to the Divorce Act as the reason why women are poor for a shorter time period now (Gadalla, 2008). These amendments made it so that once a financial agreement was made after a divorce, the amount of child support money would increase. This encourages parents to speedily settle their financial problems (Gadalla, 2008).
With the increase of divorce and the number of children being born out of wedlock, parental alienation continues to grow. With custody laws changing, allowing for equal opportunities for both parents to raise their children, and fathers beginning to fight for their right to be involved, not just every other weekend fathers, custody battles have become increasingly fierce. Another factor contributing to this is the fact that many courts consider who will be more willing to encourage the child to have a heathly and continuing relationship with the other parent.
Divorce is and has become a major issue in our society, the reason for that has been attributed to the drastic increase in divorce rates over the years. Divorce often disrupts the flow of the family structure, increases discord, and affects how family issues are handled. Families dealing with divorce are often times in a state of complete confusion and disorder, and filled with frustration, anger, and pain. Power struggles between spouses, which often times spread to the children if there any increase as the addiction worsens. There is a growing concernment among those in different fields like Social Work, Academia, and Mental Health in the United States, other countries, who have taken an interest in how divorce is readjusting
In the event of a separation or divorce, I offer divorce mediation services. This allows you and your former spouse to decide what is best for both you and your children. Divorce mediation can save your family time, money and the stress of going to
Divorces are easy to obtain in the United States but the decision needs to be carefully examined. According to statistics, “divorce makes sense in the 10 percent to 15 percent of troubled marriages that involve high-level and persistent conflict with severe abuse and physical violence” (Dafoe 1). In the other 85 to 90 percent of marriages, the marriage can and should be reconciled. Many couples simply take the easy way out, find a lawyer, and end the marriage without ever trying to examine whether or not a conclusion can be reached other than divorce.
Divorce should be harder to obtain due to the effect that it has on children the main effect it has on the children is depression. “ In the short term divorce is always troublesome for children Mavis Hetherington videotaped and scrutinized the workings of 1400 divorced families since the early 1970’s. Hetherington pinpoints a crisis period of about two years in the immediate aftermath of separation when the adults, preoccupied with their own lives, typically takes their eye off parenting just when their children are reeling from loss and feeling bewildered” (Hethrington 2). This article states that the short term effect of divorce affects the kid deep because they feel that they lost one forever and in those 1400 many of the kids felt the effect of the divorce. “Wallerstein has told us that divorce abruptly ends kids’ childhood, filling it with loneliness and worry about their parents, and hurting them prematurely and recklessly into adolescence. (Wallerstein 2).” This later affects the kids life because they try to think of happy memories they had but really all they can think about is the parent that they loss due to the divorce. “Contrary to the popular perceptions, the alternative to most divorces is not life in a war zone. Though more than 50 percent of all marriages currently end in divorce, experts tell us that only about 15 percent of all unions involve high levels of conflict. In the vast number of divorces, then, there is no gross strife or violence that could warp a youngster’s childhood. The majority of marital break-ups are driven by a quest for greener grass—and in these cases the children will almost always be worse off. (Zinsmeister 2)” this proves to me that when people get a divorce they most of the time don’t ...
The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the Mediator and client communicative behaviors in child custody mediation.
Children will be suffered conflict with the interaction with their parents and siblings, and other aspects in their family life by cause of the divorce (Berk, 2010). Some parents who decide to get divorced that they were waiting the time on arguments and fights. Also, these parents use their children to punishment to one to each other. For this situation, children have a lot of conflicts on their emotions, and they have issues in their security. For instance, the custody’s fights are the biggest battle during the separation, and parents develop a lot of stress during this process. In the majority of the cases, mothers have the custody of their children, and they have to raise as a single mother. Also, the children tend to develop a lot of fears and about what they want to do. The divorce brings several negatives on children, and children live with a lot of stress during the divorce process. As well as, each child is different, and they
Divorce is a growing epidemic in Canada and the United States. It affects both parties involved, being the spouses, and also has a profound affect on children of the marriage. Recently our government has been revising the old divorce act. It was apparent that it was time to revise the act because it did not properly protect the children from being caught in the middle of things.
In a divorce, the parents usually do not get along and may have different opinions on items. They may go to court and fight against each other about what factors caused the separation leading to the divorce and how the properties are divided. This possible exposure is very unhealthy for a child. The child sees his parents fighting and may learn from the behavior and display it. He or she may see that behavior as being an acceptable action. The fighting behavior of parents causes behavioral problems within a child. The child may hear things from one parent about the other that causes the child to take sides when he or she should be learning not to be biased and to love both parents equally.
Although functions of mediators and arbitrators have several characteristics in common, there are significant instrumental differences that make them distinct from one another. Firstly, whereas the arbitration process is similar to litigation in its adversarial nature, in which parties have the objective to win the dispute, the fundamental goal of mediation is to bring the disputants to settlement through compromise and cooperation without finding a guilty party. In arbitration, parties compete against each other in “win-lose” situation. During mediation, parties work on mutually acceptable conditions with the assistance of a facilitator. In this process, mediators do not have power to make decisions, they work to reconcile the competing needs and interests of involved parties. The mediator’s tasks are to assist disputants to identify, understand, and articulate their needs and interests to each other (Christopher W. Moore,
Mediation is a form of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Mediation is a process which it assists disputed parties to arrive to a mutually agreed resolution without going to court. As the out of court problem solving approach, mediation is a more convenient way for parties which trying to avoid the hassle and loving some flexibility from the more rigid court procedure. Mediation can be said as an informal process of which parties during this process is encouraged to work together among the disputed parties in good faith in order to solve their problems and disputes at a lower financial cost and it consume lesser time as opposed to the court procedure. Mediation recently has become more common as one of dispute resolution process especially for disputes which have relations to divorce matter, child custody or even for child visitation especially for its privacy and confidentiality.
The mediator is quite similar with broker whereby to be as a liaison officer. Different from the role of advocate, mediator will be the liaison officer that will make some groups of people voluntarily to participate the agreement to achieve the well-being. According to Dwiyantari (2013), the mediator is whereby the social worker will be as a contact represents looking for acceptable understanding and to intercede the parts of contentions incorporate talk about any issues with the trade off and convincing way. The role of a social worker as a mediator act like the third party that promotes well-being due to the disputes that occur caused by an issue or conflict. According to Stein (2004), the social worker that is impartial, the third party will be easier to find a resolution of quarrel by promoting agreement for clients. In this case, a social worker is non-judgemental because they will bring the conflict to “win-win situation”. For examples, a social worker will locate similar qualities from the persons that required to the contention and dodge the "win-lose circumstance", social worker likewise helps the persons that required in the contention to concede the authenticity of each other, and help them to recognize their basic intrigue (Waluya, 2007). Similar to the role of advocate, mediator roles help the service users or clients non-judgemental and fight for service users and clients