未成年子女經歷父母離婚告知的經驗

Abstract

全球離婚率攀升，離婚家庭子女的福祉與相關的研究也日漸增加，然而國內外的多數研究皆專注於探討離婚對子女的影響，而缺乏對父母離婚告知方式的重視。本研究希望能重視子女身為家庭成員的權利，以子女的角度出發，瞭解他們獲知父母離婚訊息的歷程、主觀感受與因應方式。 由於過去相關文獻極為匱乏，本研究屬於探索性研究，又希望能尊重離婚家庭子女的主體性，並捕捉其動態的生活歷程，故採取質性研究法，邀請八位目前為12∼18歲，父母離婚為四年內的離婚家庭子女參與本研究。 本研究發現若以受訪者的被告知狀況做為分類依據，則父母的離婚告知型態可分為三種，分別為「事前單方告知」、「事後片段告知」，與「完全未告知」。在本研究的八位受訪者中，有四位離婚家庭子女只獲得其中一方家長的事前告知，而未擔任告知者的另外一方家長，則皆曾以不當方式對子女進行離婚的溝通，稱之為「事前單方告知」；有三位離婚家庭子女的父親以突然消失的方式離家，受訪者皆在事後才經由母親的告知，獲知父母離婚的事實，且被告知的內容相當地模糊而簡短，稱為「事後片段告知」；另外，只有一位受訪者沒有獲得任何的父母離婚告知，屬於「完全未告知」的型態。研究發現，「事前單方告知」子女的主觀感受與因應為「悲傷、無奈、接受」；「事後片段告知」子女的主觀感受與因應為「震驚、壓抑、無奈」；而「完全未告知」子女的主觀感受與因應為「害怕、置身事外」。雖然父母的離異已成定局，但一些離婚家庭子女仍表示自己對父母告知的方式有所感觸與期待，主要分為兩部分，分別為「期待父母能共同進行告知」，以及「希望能在事前獲知父母離婚的決定與原因」。 本研究並在最後一章中整理出研究總結與討論，進而根據研究結果提出相關的建議，並陳述本研究的限制與貢獻。

The global divorce rate has been climbing, and the welfare for children from a divorced family along with the amount of relevant studies has been increasing. However, a majority of these studies, regardless of whether they are origined within or outside of Taiwan, focus on the effect of the divorce itself on the children, but lack the focus on the importance of the ways parents use to inform their decision of divorce. This study emphasizes on the rights of the children as family members, and the objective is to understand the process, the subjective perception, and the coping with obtaining the information of their parents’ divorce from the children’s point of view. As there is a lacking of relevant studies in this area from the past, this study is discovering in its nature. I wish to respect the fact that the child in a divorced family is an individual, and capture a dynamic view of the child’s life through the process; therefore I choose to use the qualitative research method. Eight participants participated in this study, who are 12~18 years of age, and experienced their parents’ divorce within 4 years. In this study, I discovered that when categorized under different ways the participants were informed, disclosure of the parents’ divorce decision can be divided into three categories, which are “unilateral disclosure in advance”, “ex post facto disclosure in fragments”, and “no disclosure at all”. Among the eight participants of this study, four were under the category “unilateral disclosure in advance”. They were informed of the decision by only one of the parents before the divorce took place, and the parent that did not play the role of an informer had all used improper methods to communicate the divorce with the participants. Three were under the category “ex post facto disclosure in fragments”, where the father of the participants all disappeared from home, and the participants were only informed by the mother in a blurry and brief manner after the divorce. In addition, only one participant had never been informed of the divorce decision by any of his parents, which is under the category “no disclosure at all”. In the study it is found that for children under the category “unilateral disclosure in advance”, their perception was “under sorrow, having no choice, and accepting”; for children under the category “ex post facto disclosure in fragments”, their perception was “under shock, self-constraining, and having no choice”; and for the child under the category “no disclosure at all”, his perception was “scared and putting himself out of the scope”. Although the divorce of the parents had already become inevitable, but the children still expressed expectations and feelings for the disclosure from their parents, which contained two main points: “to wish that parents can inform them of the decision” and “to wish that they can be informed and know of the reason of the divorce in advance”. In this study I also organize a summary and discussions in the final chapter, make relevant recommendations according to the result of the study, and illustrate the restrictions and contributions of this study.