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The shoe fits – now wear it – retrospective exploration of young adult’s experience of home, school, sport and friendships following parental separation
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The shoe fits – now wear it – retrospective exploration of young adult’s experience of home, school, sport and friendships following parental separation

Leanne Francia
USC Research Conference, 2014 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 14-Jul-2014–18-Jul-2014)
University of the Sunshine Coast
2014
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Abstract

Sociology
Parental separation creates for a child a new kind of family that consists a complex web of old and new relationships. Children from separated family backgrounds continue to have poorer outcomes in attachment, self-esteem and self-sufficiency. In Australia, government reform in 2006 saw changes to the Family Law Act, and an increase in judicially determined shared-care parenting arrangements (from 4% pre-reform to 34% post-reform). Research evidences a child's ability to tolerate risk factors, such as the loss of a secure attachment, however Bowlby proposed a 'sleeper effect', wherein earlier impacts on attachment needs, influenced a child's future resilience and mental wellbeing. Research suggests significant life experiences as having the power to shift a parent-child attachment from one that is secure, to one that is insecure. For children, sport, has been found to be associated with improved health outcomes, and to enhance psychological and social outcomes, and parental involvement in education has been related to children's academic achievement. As children reach adolescence friendships becomes increasingly important, with research supporting parental involvement as continuing to play a vital role in this socio-emotional development stage. However, often a child's experience is mute post separation. This qualitative research seeks to give voice to a child's experience in order to understand the nature of their lived reality. By focusing on children's experience of home, school, sport and friendships this research aims to seek an explanatory model or theory. Participants were English speaking female and males, aged 16 to 25 years who experienced parental separation, and an arrangement where they spent at least one night regularly at each parent's home. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews that consisted questions around their experience of home, school, sport and friendships. The research was guided by Bowlby's attachment theory, Erikson's identity formation theory, and is embedded in grounded theory.

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