Engelsk titel: Why it helps young people to participate in ‘peer groups for children of divorce’
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Författare:
Egge, Hilde
;
Glavin, Kari
Email: hilde.egge@diakonova.no
Språk: Nor
Antal referenser: 36
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 15013025
Sammanfattning
Background: Annually, 27000-30000 children experience the split-up of their parents. This is a
vulnerable group with an increased risk for the development of mental health and behavioural
problems. Therefore, many schools offer support groups for children of divorce. There have been
many international studies on the impact of intervention programmes for children of divorced parents,
but there is a lack of studies that describe the participants’ own experiences as to why it helps to join
a group of other pupils with similar experiences.
Objective: To describe the youths’ own experiences as to why peer groups help.
Method: Seven focus-group interviews with 28 pupils aged 14-16 years, from three different
municipalities in Norway. Grounded Theory was used in the analysis.
Results: By sharing their stories, the pupils felt they were no longer alone with their thoughts and
feelings. As well as experiencing mutual support, they could identify with each other. The peer
groups gained increased confidence and self-esteem, as well as greater influence and control over
their own lives. Their understanding of divorce, and parents/step-parents, and their ability to see the
positive aspects of divorce were also enhanced.
Conclusion: Discussion groups based on health promotion principles would appear to provide youth
with divorced parents an increased sense of coherence between comprehensibility, manageability
and meaningfulness, and thereby improve their health. The study outlines specific skills for group
leaders that may be helpful when initiating new groups.