Annual of social work, Vol. 23 No. 2, 2016.
Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.3935/ljsr.v23i2.75
DIVORCE REASONS AS DETERMINANTS OF PARENTAL CARE AGREEMENT
Ana Štifter
orcid.org/0000-0002-8790-7849
Marko Mihalj
orcid.org/0000-0002-4347-8069
; Social Welfare Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Linda Rajhvajn Bulat
; Department of Social Work, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Silvia Vuković
; Home for children and adults victims of family violence »Rainbow – Zagreb«, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In the recent decades, the rate of divorce has increased significantly in the Western world. This study aims to answer the following questions: what are the reasons that led to divorce from the perspective of the spouses in the mediation process (1); are there gender differences in their perception of those reasons (2); which variables can be used to distinguish between married couples who achieve agreement on parental care and those who do not (3). In 2010 and 2013, Social Welfare Centre Zagreb, office Sesvete, conducted a problem description analysis of 177 expert opinions gathered in mediation processes. The results have shown that the spouses stated the following reasons that lead to divorce: communication problems, emotional distancing, lack of emotional support and respect, incompatibility of expectations, lack of instrumental support, partner violence, financial problems, partner‘s parents as a source of conflict, parenting as a source of conflict, emotional/psychological problems of the individual and infidelity. Of all these causes, the first four were the most frequently stated and were the most common. However, lack of instrumental support, partner violence and emotional/psychological problems of the individual are reasons that are statistically more significantly reported by women than by men. None of the reasons was statistically more significantly reported by men. The variables that best differentiate between the parents who have reached an agreement on parental care and those who have not are the following: expert assessment of cooperation between parents regarding parental care, partner violence,
communication and emotional/psychological problems, and emotional distancing. Also, the importance of the obtained significant variables relies on the possible implications for the use of family mediation in practice.
Keywords
divorce; reasons for divorce; mediation; family mediation; parental care agreement
Hrčak ID:
172560
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2016.
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