Divorce has long been viewed as a single phenomenon affecting two individuals without considering the framework conditions in which it occurs. Due to the increase of divorce rates in the past decades researchers have changed their perspective and have concentrated on the view of divorce as a personal experience that is greatly affected by the socials and economic environment. The aim of this thesis is to investigate divorce that has become a mass phenomenon in our present society. The assumption is that in order to understand the grounds for divorce and its consequences, we have to view divorce as a phenomenon that occurs at the intersection of personal, socio-economic and legal factors. Family disputes involve persons who have interdependent and continued relati- ships and arise in a context of distressing emotions. Separation and divorce affect all the members of the family, especially children. The study presents a comprehensive analysis of divorce as a psychological process that is situated within a social and a legal context. It presents a comprehensive view of divorce as a psychosocial, economic and legal phenomenon and contains a review of the research literature about divorce and its consequences for parents and children. Moreover, it describes divorce by proposing conceptual frames and explanatory models.

Since the dawn of colonialism in Southern Africa, the province of the Eastern Cape emerged as the cradle of African resistance against colonial oppression. A closer look at the province reveals opportunities for progress and ultimate resurgence of economic and social development; yet conflated by a myriad of challenges. This book brings together different perspectives and realities of the post-apartheid Eastern Cape to provide an in-depth exploration of the developmental dilemmas that the province faces. This book provides insightful reflections on development and its sustainability some 25 years since democracy, and specifically focuses on sociological and demographic realities in the areas of migration and its impact on families. The book further grapples with the role of the state in developing culture and heritage in the province, pointing to fundamental and multiple challenges of deprivation, unemployment and subsequent community resilience in a variety of sectors including health and education. While it provides a historical analysis of contextual issues facing the province, the book also highlights the agency of the people of the Eastern Cape in confronting challenges in leadership, accountability, citizen participation and service provision. The book will be useful for development scholars and practitioners who are interested in understanding the state of the province, and similar settings, and the degree to which it has emerged from the shadows of its colonial and apartheid legacies.

LGBTQ Divorce and Relationship Dissolution: Psychological and Legal Perspectives and Implications for Practice brings together social science and legal perspectives to examine the timely topic of relationship dissolution and divorce among sexual and gender minorities.

Many books deal with divorce and its aftermath -- some deal with the impact of divorce on children and families, others with the legal or sociological aspects of divorce, and a few focus on divorced mothers and fathers. Most of these books are characterized by their practical orientation toward the issues and problems posed by divorce. None of these, however, have attempted to offer an integrated view of the massive amount of theoretical and research literature on divorced adults and their children. In addition, none present a comprehensive view of divorce as a psychological process within its larger social context. Filling that void, this book: * offers a comprehensive view of divorce as a social, interpersonal and psychological phenomenon, * reviews the theory and research on divorce focusing on the major protagonists of the divorce drama: the mother, the father and the children, and * introduces a social-psychological theory of divorce process.

This book investigates the practice of family mediation and some of the challenges that may hinder its effective use by marginalised groups in a society. Those challenges include gendered power disparity and family violence, especially towards women, and the discussion extends to how the challenges can be overcome through a practice of evaluative mediation to provide fair outcomes for women. Unlike other contemporary books on mediation, this book not only discusses different theories of power and equity in mediation, it also includes a number of verbatim quotes from different mediation sessions to demonstrate how those theories are operationalised in a real life context. While other contemporary texts on mediation focus on Western style facilitative mediation and its limitations in attaining fair justice for women enduring gendered power disparity and family violence, this text emphasises an evaluative mediation style that is embedded in Eastern social practices. Instead of focusing on gendered power disparity and family violence as limitations on the practice of facilitative mediation, this book details the practice of evaluative mediation which may provide fair justice to women despite the presence of gendered power disparity and family violence in a society.

Despite the increase of research on divorce, relatively little is known about such topics as how men adjust to divorce compared with women, how blacks adjust compared to whites, and what divorce adjustment looks like over time. Filling a gap in the literature, PORTRAIT OF DIVORCE presents a comprehensive and detailed report on the causes and consequences of divorce. Inclusive in its scope, the book covers the period of estrangement through the divorce process and on to 4 years after the couples separated. The work is based on the integration of original data with over 50 years of prior research. In addition, it contrasts divorcing people with a comparable sample of people who remain in intact marriages. The book opens with a discussion of today's changing attitudes about marriage and the resulting mixed view of divorce. A new model of divorce adjustment--one that integrates the pathology and crisis models of adjustment and includes elements of loss and change--is outlined. The four sources of study data used for the book are described, as are the ways in which such key elements as subjective distress, attachment, self-esteem, and illness contacts were measured. To address the issue of comparability of the married samples, background characteristics of the suburban, reconciled, and marital transition samples are examined. Also, "risk factors" that have been thought predispose those who divorce are explored. Having laid the groundwork, subsequent chapters cover the processes of the relationship estrangement that occurs within marriage, and various "causes" of divorce including legal definitions, psychological correlates, and marital complaints. The effect of divorce on physical and mental health and the implications of age and other life events on the ability to adjust are described. Parents' initial perceptions of the impact of divorce on their children are reported, as are changes in their perceptions over time. Other topics include economic factors, social support systems, and life after divorce. Finally, analyses are presented that illustrate what factors are associated with better and worse adjustment to divorce for blacks and whites, and men and women, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Adding immeasurably to our understanding about the causes and consequences of divorce, this volume will be valued by clinicians who work with the divorced, community psychologists, child and family development scholars, and and sociologists interested in family and health. Well written and clearly organized, it also serves as a classroom text for students in these fields.