EFFECTIVENESS OF HELP : PERCEPTIONS OF DIVORCED PARENTS

Abstract

Divorced parents were the focus of the current study as the researcher felt that their experiences of divorce were generally stressful, if not traumatic. In place of the developmental tasks in their particular life cycle phases was a series of divorced-related adjustments that threw them into a state of chaos and disequilibrium. Unsupported, divorced parents and their children would likely have great difficulty developing their capacities to adapt, and suffer from many social problems as a consequence. In this study, the researcher elicited divorced parents' responses on their perceptions of the effectiveness of social services in helping them resolve the major problems that they encountered in the process of adjustment. Also, the researcher sought to test a proposition - that divorced parents' perceptions of problems faced, help sought and effectiveness of social services received would be influenced, holding all other factors constant, by the extent of their divorced adjustment. Data was collected via (i) verbal interviews with divorced parents who had received services from at least a welfare agency and (ii) mail questionnaires with key informants with experience in working with divorced parents. Mode of analysis was one of explanation-building. Findings showed that most divorced parents perceived financial and emotional problems as the more critical problems that they faced. They were found to seek a variety of help- financial, instrumental as well as emotional, from informal and formal network members. Generally, they would approach formal channels of help when they perceived their own network sources as being unwilling or unable to help. On the whole, though they perceived some service gaps, they found the services provided by agencies to be effective in helping them cope better. The findings also confirmed the proposition made by the researcher. The pattern of findings suggests that interventions that focus on strengthening the coping capacities of divorced parents in the different phases of adjustment would enhance their progress in adapting to the crisis of divorce. Lastly, the implications of the findings for the larger society and social work practice were discussed, along with recommendations on how social services could better address the needs of divorced parents.