Abstract
The research project ‘Children and Divorce – Current Legal Practices and their Impact on Family Transitions’ is part of the Swiss National Research Programme ‘Childhood, Youth and Intergenerational Relationships in a Changing Society’ (NRP 52). Its objective is the scientific analyses of the amended Swiss divorce law, in order to get, on the one hand, an estimation of its outcomes on children’s well-being and, on the other, to find out if it takes into account and encourages modern forms of familial allocation of duties and responsibilities in an appropriate manner. The research project is embedded in a societal evaluation process of law amendment, for which the dialogue between science and practice is fundamental.
The project, ‘Children and Divorce’, aims at following a transdisciplinary approach, integrating various disciplinary perspectives and methods. It is managed by a jurist and a psychologist. The research team includes jurists, psychologists and sociologists and is supported by a group of external experts working in the field.
To elaborate the research questions, various mutually complementary qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical social research have been applied. Data was collected synchronically at three levels: (a) analysis of court files and interviews with judges, (b) written interviews with divorced mothers and fathers, (c) in-depth interviews with children, mothers and fathers. The analyses of the data focus on the following main questions:
- The experiences with the revised Swiss divorce law focusing on the well-being of the affected children.
- The decisions taken in divorce proceedings such as the award of custody (sole and joint custody), the settlement of visitation rights and maintenance, the right of the child to be heard, and the representation of the child.
- The everyday life of divorced parents and their children.
- Interrelations between legal context, resources of divorced families and the best interest of the child.
- The participation of children of divorced parents in the reorganisation process of the family. endhyphenlist
As to the inter- and transdisciplinary process, the elaboration of a common theoretical framework and the integration of the results, provide the most interesting and challenging parts. The aim of the following chapter is to focus on these aspects, without going into the results.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Büchler, A. and Simoni, H.: 2006, July 15, Scheidungskinder zwischen Wohnmüttern und Besuchsvätern. ElterlicheSorge und Kindeswohl – Modell und Alltag (Children of divorced parents between residental mothers and non-residental fathers. Parental responsibility and welfare of the child – models and daily life), Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Nr. 162, S. 65.
Cowan, P.: 1991, Individual and family life transitions: a proposal for a new definition. In: P. Cowan and M. Hetheringthon (eds), Family transitions: a proposal for a new definition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, pp. 3–30.
Eidg. Departement des Innern (ed.): 2004, Familienbericht 2004: Strukturelle Anforderungen an eine bedürfnisgerechte Familienpolitik, Bern.
Kraemer, H., Measelle, J., Ablow, J., Eessex, M., Boyce, W, and Kupfer, D.: 2003, A new approach to integrating data from multiple informants in psychiatric assessment and research: mixing and matching contexts and perspectives, Am J Psychiatr 160, 1566–1577.
National Research Programme 52: n.d., Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://www.nfp52.ch.
Perrig-Chiello, P. and Perren, S.: 2005, Biographical transitions from a midlife perspective, J Adult Dev 12, 169–181.
Perrig-Chiello, P.: 2004, Soziale Integration im Spiegelbild lebenszyklischer Übergänge (Social integration as reflected in life-cycle transitions). In: Ch. Suter (ed.), Sozialbericht 2004 (Social Report), Seismo, Zurich, pp. 129–154.
Perrig-Chiello, P. and Arber, W.: 2002, Inter- und Transdisziplinarität – zwischen akademischem Anspruch und gesellschaftlichem Bedürfnis (Inter- and transdisciplinarity – between academic intention and social need), Réalités Sociale, Lausanne.
Perrig-Chiello, P. and Darbellay, F. (eds): 2002, Qu’est-ce que l’interdisciplinarité?, Réalités Sociale, Lausanne.
Schweizerisches Zivilgesetzbuch (Swiss Civil Code, ZGB) of May 1, 2007, Retrieved June 11, 2007, from http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/c210.html.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Retrieved June 11,
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Simoni, H., Perrig-Chiello, P., Büchler, A. (2008). Children and Divorce Investigating Current Legal Practices and their Impact on Family Transitions. In: Hadorn, G.H., et al. Handbook of Transdisciplinary Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6699-3_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6699-3_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6698-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6699-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)