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OFFPHD-Offentlig sektor-ph.d.

Barn ut av foreldrekonflikten - samskaping av hjelpsomme tiltak for foreldre og barn som lever med høy konflikt etter samlivsbrudd.

Alternative title: No kids in the middle - co-creating supportive initiatives for parents and children living with severe conflict after divorce

Awarded: NOK 1.7 mill.

Project Number:

272378

Project Period:

2017 - 2021

Funding received from:

Subject Fields:

The research explored what it means to be a parent facing the welfare state's institutional measures to deal with persistent conflict between parents after a break-up. It sheds light on what participating in such measures demands of parents, how this is experienced, what skills and understandings are required, and how individual experience is associated with institutional processes and frameworks. The purpose of the study was to expand the understanding of complexity in services aimed at parents and children living with a high level of parental conflict after a break-up. It is thoroughly documented that being part of a "high-conflict case" as a parent or as a child is a great burden with potentially serious consequences for individuals' quality of life. The number of such cases has increased over the last decades, both in Norway and the rest of the Western world. This has led to an increased concern with developing legal, social, and therapeutic measures to help families in such situations. At the same time, several social scientists have claimed that the way in which this institutional apparatus is structured can itself contribute to shape and maintain such conflicts. Understanding how institutional measures that are intended to help interact with parents' conflicts can therefore be an important contribution to society. Methodologically, the study used a qualitative and ethnographic approach. The researcher participated as an observer in a therapeutic multi-family group for children and parents identified as "high-conflict cases" and conducted in-depth interviews with parents and therapists associated with this group. Furthermore, child welfare caseworkers and district court judges were interviewed. These all had experience from working with "high-conflict cases" and of referring families to this specific group measure. In this way, one specific institutional measure for "high-conflict cases" was explored, both as it was experienced by those who took part in it locally, and in a larger institutional and societal context. As a research project, the study was exploratory. This meant that themes and issues of interest emerged during the project, in dialogue with the research participants. What eventually stood out as the core issue of the study was the distance, or disjuncture, between parents' experience and practical knowledge from their own parenting on the one hand, and the abstract institutional reality opposite which various public services are responsible on the other. The dissertation consists of three published scientific articles/sub-studies and a mantle. The first sub-study explored how parents who were part of a high-conflict case negotiated their own parenting in dialogue with dominant understandings of what good parenting is. Through analyzes of parents' accounts of their own everyday lives, it shows how what from parents' perspective was understood as an attempt to find a position for themselves vis-à-vis their own children and ex-partners, could result in precisely such chains of action that professionals considered as high-conflict behavior. While parents justified their actions in concern for their children, making it impossible to let go of the worries just to lower the level of conflict, it seemed that professionals considered the same as a sign that parents did not understand how serious the situation might be for the children. In other words, what was interpreted by professionals from the "outside" as the conflict was, from parents' "insider" point of view, understood as an expression of deep concern. The second sub-study looked more closely at how it actually happened that worried parents who contacted the institutional services were turned into a "case" that could be referred from one service to another. The article draws on data from interviews with parents about their meetings with caseworkers from the child welfare service. The article shows how professionals' competent handling of institutional knowledge entailed a risk that the dialogue between parents and professionals became disconnected from the concerns that parents experienced, and how this sometimes led to an experience of alienation and a reduced sense of agency. The third sub-study drew on data from interviews and field notes from participant observation in a multi-family therapy group. The article describes the observed therapeutic practice as a complex educational event. It concludes that such a clinical practice can be seen as a place where parents are presented with the opportunity to address some of the dilemmas that the first two sub-studies pointed out. But at the same time participants in such a therapy situation (both professionals and clients) must constantly negotiate a balance between professional and institutional expectations, and life as it unfolds and is experienced.

Studien bidrar til en utvidet forståelse av hvordan foreldres konflikter etter skilsmisse er knyttet samen med både en overordnet samfunnsdiskurs om foreldreskap og brudd, og med selve innretningen av det institusjonelle apparatet av tjenester som er gitt i oppgave å regulere foreldres konflikter. For praksisfeltet bidrar resultatene først og fremst til å belyse foreldres posisjon og erfaring i høykonfliktsaker. En konsekvens av det vil kunne være at fagfolk, og de institusjonelle rammene de arbeider innenfor, i større grad blir i stand til å ta hensyn til de eksistensielle sidene ved det å være foreldre i et slikt sakskompleks. Eksisterende faglige retningslinjer kan sies å adressere konflikter mellom foreldre som en form for manglende omsorg. Funnene fra denne undersøkelsen tyder på at det også kan være slik at foreldres opplevelse av at egen bekymring for barn ikke blir møtt ofte er noe av drivkraften bak det som av profesjonelle benevnes som konflikter, ikke går over.

Prosjektet vil benytte aksjonsforskningsmetodologi. Formålet med prosjektet er å utforske og videreutvikle praksis i "Barn ut av foreldrekonflikten," og å gjøre det på en måte som utvider forståelsen av tiltaket og av de ulike aktørenes rolle i det. Det vil bli gjennomført fokusgruppeintervjuer med representanter fra de forskjellige deltakergruppene med tilknytning til "Barn ut av foreldrekonflikten": ledere, terapeuter, foreldre, og representanter fra sosialt nettverk. Det er foreløpig ikke avklart om det også skal gjennomføres fokusgruppeintervju med barna. Bufetat Region Sør og ABUP, SSHF, vil samarbeide om gjennomføring og finansiering av PhD-prosjektet. Begge virksomheter har egne, aktive, FoU-avdelinger, og prosjektet vil være tilknyttet begge. Dette gir tilgang på et bredt og tverrfaglig forskningsmiljø. Samtidig vil det å ha forpliktelser overfor ulike miljøer kunne bli opplevd kompliserende. Den tiltenkte PhD-kandidaten er del av kollegiet som driver den praksisen som skal undersøkes. Dette gir fordeler i form av kjennskap til personer og virksomhet, men stiller også særlige krav til etisk gjennomføring av studien. Den praksisen som skal undersøkes, er ressurskrevende og drives av små praksisfellesskap. Det vil alltid være en fare for at uforutsette hendelser kan sette gjennomføring av "Barn ut av foreldrekonflikten" i fare. Prosjektresultatene vil ha flere anvendelsesområder. De vil bidra til styrking av samarbeid mellom de ulike virksomhetene som samhandler om praksisen, de vil bidra til optimalisering av den kliniske praksisen ved å gi økt mulighet for en mer brukersensitiv tjeneste. Resultatene vil bidra med ny kunnskap til både familievernet og psykisk helsevern når det gjelder tjenester rettet mot barn og foreldre som lever med høy konflikt etter samlivsbrudd. Lokalt vil prosjektet bidra til økt refleksjon rundt egen praksis hos deltakerne, og til å knytte klinikk tettere til forskning.

Funding scheme:

OFFPHD-Offentlig sektor-ph.d.

Funding Sources