Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Family breakdown'

The idea that the family is breaking up, breaking down, failing, in decline, or otherwise in trouble, is not the only view that is expressed about family in the 1990s, but it is one that prevails in public sector discourse. It is a strong idea, a concept, which emerged in its present form in response to the sharp increases experienced in Australia - and other Western nations in the period since the 1960s - in rates of divorce, births outside marriage, and the formation of single parent families. The idea of family breakdown, comes complete with the belief that what has happened to the family in the post-sixties period, has generally happened to the detriment of those involved and society at large. Children are said to have their psychological, emotional, and educational development impaired in the wake of family breakdown, female sole parents to become trapped in lives of poverty and disadvantage, and divorced men, to suffer emotionally, and to face increased risk of physical illness. According to the arguments of some sectors, the link between increased family breakdown and increased levels of crime within a given society is causal and clear. In this thesis I seek to 'undo' this broad and powerful concept. I aim to unravel it, to split it up into its main dimensions or elements. I examine in detail the main ways in which divorce and single parent family structure have featured as problems in the public domain in Australia in recent decades. I examine concerns about the state of the contemporary family that are expressed by public figures, policy makers, research professionals and experts - concerns that are accepted by and reflected in the current affairs media. I identify several different 'types' or genres of concern about the family and, for each, draw attention to how family breakdown features in their debates - to what it signifies. I examine what the consequences of increasing breakdown are argued by politicians and experts to be, and how this knowledge of the consequences has itself been arrived at or produced. I develop a number of lines of critique of the various representations of family breakdown that I discuss. Each of these lines of critique aims to elaborate and support an overall critical point made in the thesis, concerning the lingering normativity of the two parent, heterosexual model of family.

In January of 2001 the Government announced its intention to repeal Part 11 of the Family Law Act 1996. Originally scheduled for implementation in 2000, the Act had provided for fundamental changes to English divorce law, including removing matrimonial 'fault' from the divorce process, and encouraging mediation as the preferred method of dispute resolution. The Family Law Act began life as a set of recommendations intended primarily to bring marriages to an end with minimum hostility and distress. Yet what emerged from the policy 'process' was a piece of legislation that explicitly declared its support for marriage, and which imposed a framework of mechanisms designed to encourage couples to stay together. The first 'phase' of this thesis examines how the Act, with its dual aims of supporting and ending marriage, was reached. Initially the history of divorce law is traced. Through a series of interviews conducted with individuals involved in the Family Law Act 'process', the achievement of this 'middle-way' is then explored in detail. The second 'phase', drawing on a series of interviews conducted with individuals working with families on the ground, subsequently goes on to examine the 'street-level' response to marriage and relationship breakdown. Whilst national policy is something of a compromise between idealism and pragmatism, for those at street-level their work is unambiguously pragmatic - policy is constructed primarily in terms of a non-judgemental 'service' catering to the diversity of the modern family experience. The apparent success of this approach, particularly when compared to the 'failure' of the Family Law Act, prompts the question of whether there are lessons to be learnt for national policy. Indeed the study suggests that a new mind-set and approach akin to that operating on the ground is also needed at national level, if workable divorce law reform is to be achieved.

This is a study of the social and legal consequences of family breakdown in Nigeria as a whole but with specific reference to Borno State. It examines the effects of family breakdown on the husband and wife or wives and their children under the General Laws, Customary Law and Islamic Law of the people of Maidugurij Biu, and Gwoza areas of Borno State. The study covers the post-Independence period-i. e from 1960 to today. The aim of the study is to show how the social and economic changes in society affect the family at divorce. Although social change is part of any society, this study shows that the formal law on family breakdown and its consequences have not kept pace with social change, and that the dichotomy between state law and customary or Islamic law on family breakdown exists only in court. Thus the authority of the extended family, and within it, the dominance of men over womens, has not been specifically disturbed by the increasing Westernisation and rural-urban migration that has taken place since Independence. It is under this situation that the rights of women, property settlement on divorce, maintenances, and custody of children, as the main indicators of the consequences of family breakdown in any society has to be gauged. The role of the law and the state is also discussed. We argue that all the post-Colonial governments in the Federation were responsible for the present deplorable condition of victims of family breakdown not only in Borno State but throughout the country. Thus there has been no state-provided Social welfare to cater for deserted wivest children, and destitutes despite the ever increasing needs of such persons in a society that is rapidly changing. It is within this context that the effect of family breakdown on the people of Borno State is examined. The study argues that the various state authorities in Nigeria tend to abandon their responsibility to the family to the traditional customary institutions, such as the extended familyf which are now incapable of meeting the needs of victims of family breakdown. Moreoveri, the traditional family based economic system does not help women on divorce because it is predicated on the traditional power structure within the home which is in favour of men. on divorce, women are invariably left high and dry# and with few alternatives than to return home to their parents or other extended family members for support.

Focussing on Scotland, this thesis adds a new perspective to the existing discussion surrounding marriage and marriage breakdown in the late twentieth century. It is the lived reality of marriage and marriage breakdown which is a key focus, using oral history and a range of contemporary and archival source materials. Whilst a renewed discursive emphasis on the 'companionate marriage' in the immediate post-war period is evident, in line with the social reconstruction ethos of the period, there existed alongside such enthusiasm a number of alternative, and often conflicting, contemporary discourses. With significant implications for marriage and family relations, sociologists and historians identify a further profound discursive shift as occurring during the 1970s, emphasising the increased availability of contraception, the emergence of second-wave feminism in Britain and landmark equality legislation as crucial factors intertwined with this. Perceived advances in terms of both mainstream ideology and legislation, including, for example, a revived feminist consciousness and the 1976 Divorce (Scotland) Act, did not influence marriage in a discursive vacuum but instead are likely to have integrated and competed not only with generic ideals regarding appropriate gender roles but also embedded local patterns of gender relations. Oral history is a particularly appropriate methodology with which to address this topic as it permits an otherwise unattainable insight into the experience of day-to-day life. Additional source materials drawn on include parliamentary, ecclesiastical and sociological commentary.

Conflict in marital relationships affects couple intimacy and satisfaction impacting on the couple system, the family system and wider social systems. Negative conflict is associated with breakdown in intimacy, marital dissatisfaction, and is seen to be a prominent cause of marital failure. As conflict is a process, it has the possibility of change and development over time, including moving towards a process whereby disagreements can be worked out with mutually acceptable solutions. Theoretical frameworks for conflict and marital counselling were reviewed and the systems-interactionist theory and a systemic-based counselling approach chosen for the purposes of this study. It was hypothesised that a systemic-based counselling approach would lower the levels of conflict occurring within a marital relationship. The principal objective of this study was to provide a more rigorous investigation than previous studies of client perceptions of the effectiveness of a systems-based counselling approach for marital counselling. Three case studies were conducted, with embedded units of analysis, within the context of a therapeutic process which drew on current theories of systemic counselling. Conflict was measured and operationalised as overt behavioural conflict, communication of negative affect, frequency of disagreements, intensity of disagreements, desire to change the other partner, the desire for change, and evidence of, and frequency of, positive conflict. As the study was based on the client's perceptions of change, multi-methods of selfreports were employed. As none of the known measurements met the needs of this study, a questionnaire known as the QCR was devised specifically for the pre- and posttests. The QCR was designed to measure: any increase or decrease in positive conflict; changes to both the intensity and frequency in negative conflict; and perceptions of the desire for change. The effectiveness of the counselling approach was measured by comparing the results of the pre-and post-tests with the continual self-reports and the self-reports at the long term follow-up interviews. An analysis of the self-reports focus on: the desire for change; the effectiveness of a systems based counselling approach in lowering negative conflict; and the usefulness of the QCR and other tools as measures. The systems-based-counselling approach, proved from the clients' perspective, to be: highly effective in case one; mostly effective in case two; and ineffective in case three as one partner aborted the counselling process. The systems-based-counselling approach had variable success in decreasing the intensity of negative conflict but was mostly successful in decreasing the frequency of negative conflict. This approach was not largely successful in reporting an increase in the frequency of positive conflict. The study revealed evidence of a relationship between commitment to the marital relationship and negative conflict. It also adds to the debate about the appropriateness of a systems-based counselling approach in violent relationships. In judging the clients' perceptions of the effectiveness of the systems-based counselling approach multi-measurements employed including the lengthy recording of the therapeutic sessions. It is claimed that this thesis offers a more rigorous methodology than anecdotal evidence previously used in the reporting of systemic counselling cases.

Homelessness in Australian rural and regional mining communities is both a product of the decade long mining boom from 2002 to 2012 and a result of the mining downturn. The mining cycle is a structural driver of homelessness in these communities, compounding the social and economic dynamics that influence homelessness across any community or region. Despite some extraordinary mining cycle factors that placed more people in those communities at risk of homelessness, homelessness has not been recognised as a major social issue in rural and regional mining communities. This raises the question of how does the nation prepare for the inevitable future periods of mining boom and downturns? This qualitative research project involved in-depth interviews and focus groups with 43 participants, including 12 participants from the communities of Mackay, Moranbah and Dysart who were either experiencing homelessness at the time of the study or had experienced homelessness within the last eight years. The research also included participants from specialist homelessness services, generic community and government services and other community representatives from the three communities of interest to this study. Mining companies declined the offer to participate in this study. The key findings from this research include identifying contextual factors that influenced homelessness in these mining communities in the mining boom and downturn periods. Eight specific contextual themes were identified regarding the impact of the phases of the mining cycle on homelessness in these three mining communities. The research further identifies three pathways to homelessness in mining communities throughout the mining cycle. The three pathways are: (1) relationship and family breakdown and domestic and family violence, (2) unemployment and housing affordability, and (3) high vulnerability and lack of access to housing and support services. These pathways build on previous literature about pathways to homelessness and in some instances indicate how people can end their experiences of homelessness in mining communities. The research explores how mining communities could prevent and reduce homelessness irrespective of the stage of the mining cycle through mandating the ‘Social License to Operate’, longer term social planning and policy processes, and improving access to appropriate and affordable housing. Finally, the research concludes with a list of planning, policy and practice recommendations aimed at preventing and reducing homelessness in rural and regional mining communities. These recommendations emphasise prevention and early approaches to homelessness throughout the mining cycle and more crisis accommodation options during the mining boom.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Human Serv & Soc Wrk
Griffith Health
Full Text

This thesis examines the issue of marriage breakdown in the British Armed Forces in light of claims that rates are double that of the civilian population. The research is situated within the context of existing research on the relationship between the service family and the military organisation. This thesis is distinctive in that it employs Bacchi's (1999) method of critical analysis to problem framing in Governmental policy and existing discourses on service families. The objective is to show how the impact of military demands on marriage and family life are framed by the media, politicians, and academics as a problem for the military, in relation to a tension that exists between retention and divorce. Attention to the effects of service life on families is therefore embedded in policy directives, and framed by concerns over the retention and recruitment of military personnel as implications for operational effectiveness. By re-focusing attention to the implications of marriage breakdown for service families this thesis constructs new problem frames, a key question being: what is problematic about marriage and marital breakdown for military wives? The empirical areas explored through in-depth qualitative interviews with a sample of ex-service wives from across the tri-Services are women s experiences and perceptions of marriage and family life, and of marriage breakdown in the military. This methodological approach is unique in that previous studies of service wives have focused on a single community. The voices and experiences of ex-service wives are noticeably absent in previous research, representing neglected routes to experience and knowledge that are vital to a more holistic understanding of the impact of military demands on the family. This thesis highlights the role of emotion in the socialisation of service families which has not been made in the existing literature to date. It has been acknowledged that the conceptual boundaries between the public and private spheres are practically non-existent where the military and service families are concerned. The interface between work and home can be explained in terms of the invisible emotion work service wives perform in support of husbands careers and the institutional goals of the military. This thesis is also distinctive in that it defines wives work in relation to the military in terms of emotional labour and the two-person career. As wives receive little recompense for this labour, responding to role appropriate emotions can have implications for the well-being of military wives, and illustrates the complex picture that emerges as to the reasons why military marriages might end. Factors linked to issues of marital adversity were: infidelity, domestic violence and emotional and psychological abuse, the effects of a culture of alcohol, and the impact of post-operational stress. In addition, family separation was viewed as creating emotional distance between couples. Many women became very independent and adept at coping with the military lifestyle, which created problems for the reintegration of personnel into family life. Moreover, husbands that were perceived by women to be married to the military, in terms of an institutional and social identity, were less satisfied with their relationships. This thesis concludes that the construct of the service family is embedded in institutional rules and regulations regarding marriage and family life, therefore current problematisations of marriage breakdown fail to reveal the difficulties experienced by families in navigating post-divorce family life. Non-intact families are rendered operationally ineffective, hence there are a number of consequences experienced by service families, and women and children in particular, that represent a far-reaching problem of marriage breakdown in the UK Armed Forces.

This doctoral thesis examines Punjabi-Sikhs, a transnational diaspora community, to consider the extent to which Canadian multicultural accommodation extends into the realm of Ontario family law and struggles with ethnic diversity. The findings of this thesis aim to prove the practical relevance of such research and it hopes to establish an interest in future projects on the access to justice needs of ethnic minorities. Marriage and marriage breakdown being the chosen site of analysis, the objective is to map the dispute processes parties employ, navigating between official and unofficial forums and actors. 'Law as process' literature is employed, including legal pluralism and dispute settlement studies, to examine the dynamic process of mitigating marriage breakdown within and outside of the official law. This thesis demonstrates that kinship-oriented Punjabi-Sikh transmigrants approach the official family law assuming that their justiciable issues can be upheld, whereas official law actors, guided by the liberal, secular and individual framework of Ontario family law, struggle to adequately comprehend and/or resolve such disputes. While some navigational factors, such as the presence of physical violence entail necessary legal intervention to secure individual human rights, others involve the instrumental use of the law to punish or manipulate the other spouse. Within the unofficial sphere, this thesis establishes that Punjabi-Sikh disputants resort to a variety of kinship and Sikhi-focused forums and actors before, in parallel and after family law proceedings. It is established that the multiple framework approach of Punjabi-Sikh disputants means that the official and unofficial spheres are utilised simultaneously to address marriage breakdown. For this legal ethnography, a mixed methodology approach is adopted, consisting of legal casework, coding, critical discourse analysis, and semi-structured interviews. The primary fieldwork data comprises both family law cases and interviews with married, separated and divorced Punjabi-Sikhs in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada.

The course of endstage renal disease (ESRD) and receiving hemodialysis (HD) treatment is complex and filled with uncertainty. Part of this illness experience includes making end-of-life (EOL) care decisions. Many families are unprepared to make such decisions. Advance care planning (ACP) creates an excellent context for laying the groundwork for these emotionally charged conversations. Hemodialysis patients, their families and healthcare providers (HCPs) are in a unique position to begin the ACP process early in the illness trajectory, revisiting it when the patient’s health status, prognosis and treatment modality changes. To date, little research has focused directly on how families experience ACP conversations in the context of ESRD or HD. The purpose of this study was to explore family members’ experiences of participating in a facilitated ACP conversation with the HD patient. This approach recognizes and privileges the family’s role in the illness trajectory of ESRD and validates that they too are HCPs’ clients. Five families, consisting of the HD patient and one family member, who went through the ACP process were interviewed along with an ACP facilitator from the nephrology program. This focused ethnographic study applied the theoretical perspective of postmodernist critical theory to derive and analyze data from in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed a detailed description of the ACP process that included timing, readiness to acknowledge the potentiality of death, facing mortality, and finding meaning in the illness experience. As families started to deconstruct their experiences, they shared stories of communication breakdown, highlighting the complexities of their relationships with HCPs. Understanding the factors that potentially contribute to HD patients’, their families’ and the renal staff’s discomfort with death were analyzed. The study findings provide important direction for HCPs about how families make ACP decisions, how they perceive the ACP process, and what they identify as their EOL care needs and wishes. Failure to implement ACP as part of an EOL care program means that death will continue to be denied and clients’ EOL care needs will remain un-addressed. In order for ACP to be effective on HD units, sustainable resources are essential for patients, their families and HCPs.

Un tiers des enfants de moins de 18 ans ne vivent pas avec leurs deux parents biologiques à Madagascar. En effet, les « ruptures familiales » entrainent souvent des situations de monoparentalité (liées à un divorce, une séparation des parents ou un veuvage), de recomposition familiale et de confiage d’enfants. Il s’agit ici de se pencher sur la dynamique familiale autour de ces discontinuités, en analysant les différents schémas de prise en charge intra-familiale des enfants. Cette perspective permet ainsi de comprendre les processus qui ont mené à ces ruptures mais surtout de rendre compte de la complexité des décisions de prise en charge des enfants selon les formes de ruptures vécues. En s’appuyant sur une analyse des Enquêtes Démographiques et de Santé (EDS), des entretiens semi-directifs ont été menés dans deux régions distinctes de Madagascar (Toliara et Antananarivo) où la proportion d’enfants ne vivant pas avec les deux parents est très différente l’une de l’autre. Une analyse des histoires familiales souligne les différents déterminants de la prise en charge des enfants pour chaque type de ruptures et montre qu’il existe des modèles-types de prise en charge et des spécificités socio-culturelles dans les deux régions. Nous examinons le maintien des solidarités familiales face à la crise économique grandissante dans laquelle vivent les ménages. En outre, nous mettons en lumière la place de la grand-parentalité dans l’éducation et le confiage d’enfants
One third of children under 18 years are not living with their two biological parents in Madagascar. Indeed, "family breakdowns" often lead to single parenthood (related to a divorce, parental separation or widowhood), to stepfamilies and to child fostering. This thesis addresses the family dynamics around these discontinuities, analyzing different patterns of care of children within the family. This perspective allows us to understand the processes that led to these failures but also to account for the complexity of decisions about support children according to the form of disruption experienced. Based on a previous analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data, semi-structured interviews were conducted in two regions of Madagascar (Antananarivo and Toliara) where the proportions of children not living with both parents are very different. An analysis of family histories highlights the various determinants of child care for each type of failure.and will show if there are standard models of care and socio-cultural specificities for the two regions. We also examine whether family solidarities remain in a context ofa growing economic crisis. In addition, we will highlight the role of grand-parenting in education and child fostering

Studien syftade till att undersöka hur socialsekreterare beskriver familjehemsföräldrars behov av stöd vid sammanbrott samt vilka möjligheter de uppfattar sig ha att möta stödbehovet. Sju socialsekreterare deltog i studien och data samlades in genom en fokusgruppsdiskussion och tre enskilda intervjuer. Studiens teoretiska ansats var teorin om gräsrotsbyråkrati samt begreppet handlingsutrymme. Resultatet visade att de intervjuade socialsekreterarna upplevde en svårighet att prata om sammanbrottet utan att se till placeringen i sin helhet. Det blev också tydligt att ämnet var ovanligt för socialsekreterarna att reflektera över. Stödjande samtal uppfattades vara det främsta stödbehovet och socialsekreterarna beskrev en för familjehemsföräldrarna känslomässig process i samband med ett sammanbrott, vilken de bemötte med tid för återhämtning samt “ett lyssnande öra”. Organisatoriska förutsättningar i form av arbetets organisering och dess kultur, ledningens insyn och förtroende, hög arbetsbelastning samt geografiskt långa avstånd var aspekter vilka möjliggjorde eller begränsade socialsekreterarna.
The aim of the study was to examine how social workers describe foster parents’ need of support in the event of a placement breakdown and which opportunities the social workers perceived having to meet the parents’ needs. A focus group and three individual interviews were made, including totally seven social workers in the study. The theoretical approach was the theory of street-level bureaucracy with focus on the concept of discretion. The social workers described a difficulty to talk about placement breakdown without seeing the placement as a whole. It became obvious that identifying foster parents’ needs during or after a placement breakdown was not perceived as part of the social workers’ work tasks. Although, they expressed that foster parents’ may need support in this situation. The social workers described an emotional process for foster parents, which they responded to with listening as well as “giving time for recovery”. Organizational conditions affecting the work were discussed in terms of workplace culture and organization, the management’s insight and trust, a high workload and geographically long distance which enabled or limited the social workers.

Panic over human population growth became a near-global phenomenon in the second half of the twentieth century. International networks encouraged governments to adopt population control methodologies that used state power and national policy to incentivize, and sometimes coerce, lower fertility rates. By the end of the century, the failures and draconian nature of population control led to a rebuke of broad demographic interventions. Population policy shifted toward a reproductive rights framework that privileged individual prerogative over any national agenda. My research introduces a conceptual middle ground that allows for coordinated state programming in the face of undesirable demographic trajectories, while also upholding a spectrum of individual liberty – what I call “population management.” The model for population management is not hypothetical, but materialized in Tanzania during the Ujamaa era that lasted roughly two decades from 1967 to 1986. Through robust leadership, a sense of imagined kinship, moral nuance, and an active policymaking coalition, Tanzania nurtured an approach to changing demographics that centered population within its broader postcolonial development project. Population management encouraged reciprocal state and community action to assuage problems brought on by an increasing population, including education reforms, diversified family planning, and public health campaigns. The flexible concept of “responsible parenthood” kept varying groups of government actors, religious authorities, women’s organizations, community leaders, and health practitioners on the same page, as their multiplicity of lived experience helped define and inform policy. Tanzania’s population management agenda reframes the historical narrative away from a binary of state control versus individual rights, and provides a model for future policymaking. Combating the attendant problems of population change requires broad networks working together, which makes collaboration and flexibility key to maintaining collective action. As global demographic agendas diverge with rapid population growth in regions of Africa and depopulation in high-income countries, governments will need to adopt contextualized population policies that acknowledge unique historical, personal, and local sensitivities.
2022-07-15T00:00:00Z

Vatican II provided the Catholic Church with an opportunity for deep reflection and to align its theological teachings with modern times. This reflection resulted in a resurgence of the importance of Christian marriage and family living. Beyond Vatican II, the Christian family has been described as a ‘domestic’ church. This description defines the family founded on marriage as a cornerstone for the church and society. The Church has realised that if she has to succeed in her mission of evangelisation, she needs to strengthen the families founded on the sacrament of marriage and also to take care of broken families. The theme of a ‘domestic church’ was further explored and discussed in the 1994 Special Synod for the Bishops of Africa. This synod strongly used the image of the family as an effective tool for evangelisation in Africa. The rationale for this emphasis was that the institution of the family founded on marriage is held in high esteem in Africa and it is one of the most important custodians of cultural values. This institution, the bishops argued, can now be used as a custodian for Christian values. Hence, the family founded on marriage will become a school where these values are cherished and taught to offspring. The family founded on marriage is celebrated across the global cultural spectrum. It is through the family that the age old wisdom of ancestors is propagated. This ensures the survival and the development of the different communities. Communities develop because they are built upon strong ethical, religious and cultural values which are safeguarded by the institution of the family founded on marriage. The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is the custodian of life. Marriage is about life. Hence, the respect of human life is safeguarded by the family. The collapse of such a pivotal institution has serious implications for the community. The institution of the family founded on marriage is presented in this thesis as a turn around strategy to the challenge of moral permissiveness in our country. It is a commonly accepted theory that development can only take place where there is stability. The lack of infrastructural development in most African countries is due to lack of political stability. Instability often results in chaos and anarchy. Marriage promises stability which is rooted in the self giving of the couples. Such an environment becomes conducive for human life to be propagated, nurtured and developed. It further creates a sense of being loved and belonging to the child. These qualities are essential for proper and integral human development. Furthermore, marriage ties together the goals of parenting, namely, procreation and parenthood and they are inseparable. They prepare children for social integration.The purpose of this research is to demonstrate how the institution of the family founded on marriage can help us develop a coherent moral vision in South Africa. This turn around strategy is proposed by systematically analysing the causes and consequences of family breakdown. The thesis establishes that the institution of the family founded on marriage is undergoing a crisis. This crisis manifests itself through single-parenthood, high rate of divorce, fatherlessness, etc. The consequences of this crisis are not favourable for individuals and the society.
Philosophy & Systematic Theology
D. Th. (Theological ethics)

This paper presents the findings of an investigation into Australian laws applicable to married couples and non-married couples in the event of a breakdown of the relationship. Research was conducted from 1998 until 2000. The aim of the paper is to change the current practice of state and territorial legislation being administered in those cases where a de facto relationship breaks down but Commonwealth legislation applied where the break down of a marriage occurs.

This message is directed at both the legal fraternity and State and Commonwealth governments. These organisations are considered to have a major influence in the area of family law.

The effect of the current State and Territorial legislation pertaining to de facto relationships is inconsistent application of law to ordinary Australians. Since exercising its powers under the Australian Constitution, the Commonwealth removed the diversity that existed when marriage and divorce fell under State legislation, and delivered instead uniformity and consistency in these areas.

The findings reveal that society is registering rapid change in its attitude to relationships compared to that of a few generations ago. The suggestion of this paper is for a practical change to the current system of altering the financial and property interests of heterosexual de facto couples. As a result of those same shifting social attitudes, issues related to ex-nuptial children were referred from the States to the Commonwealth. The present position regarding current de facto legislation would indicate, and social attitude appears to agree, that it is time to bring matters related to the break down of a de facto couple's relationship under the same jurisdiction.

The institutions of marriage and family have existed throughout human kind and continue to do so as we enter the twenty first century. These are important institutions that prepare individuals as social actors. The progress of society from its traditional form to present levels of modernity, has come with many consequences for the institutions of marriage and the family. This has been witnessed by high rates of marital breakdown and single parenthood in almost all societies. The causes of marriage and family breakdown are many, and complex. It is a multi-factored problem which social scientists and policy makers are battling to come to grips with since its escalation has enonnous social, economic and political consequences. The biggest victims of marital breakdown are children. Unless society comes to grips with this social problem, the institutions of marriage and the family are at risk of collapsing. For society to continue to prepare future social actors, it is paramount that these two institutions are preserved.
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2001.

This dissertation deals with an ethical analysis of marriage relationships among Tswana speaking Catholics in the light of the understandings of marriage of both the African and Christian traditions. These traditions have certain practices and perspectives that, if they are put together, can enrich marriage in all its aspects. The first two chapters analyse the practices and perspectives of marriage within the African and Christian traditions, while the third compares and contrasts them. The aspects dealt with are a) compatible values from African and Christian marriage and b) incompatible values from African and Christian marriages. In chapter four, the role of the Church in restoring the purpose and the meaning of marriage and what it can do to improve Catholic marriage relationships among Tswana speaking people are discussed and some practical suggestions are proposed.
Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology
M. Th. (Theological Ethics)

During the researcher's work with looked after children for the past four years, it became clear that adolescent placements were much more likely to break down than others. Although there is some literature about foster placement breakdowns, the researcher did not really get an answer as to the causes of adolescent placement breakdowns. This study therefore explores causal factors of adolescent placement breakdowns as seen by foster carers, adolescents and professionals. It is evident from this study that there are no easy answers. Although the adolescent, as much as any other child, craves to belong, to be listened to and be respected, it seems that it is not always possible for foster carers to put this into practice, given the challenging behaviour that adolescents often display. Recommendations are based on relevant literature and the empirical study, in the hope that it might be useful to those with an interest in this field.
Social Work
M.Diac. (Play Therapy)