A Systemic Perspective of the Phenomenon of Visitation Resistance and Refusal in Separated Families: A Case Study

• Main Authors: Weichih Hsieh, 謝未遲
• Other Authors: Peili Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/573p8j

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 教育心理與輔導學系 === 102 === A qualitative single-case study is conducted on one separated family, in order to understand the “Visitation Resistance and Refusal” of a family between the child and the nonresidential parent. The purpose of this study is to investigate the phenomenon in a systemic perspective, and the legal response collaboration with mental health professionals. In this study, the family members, three court consultants who were assigned for the family members and the Guardian Ad Litem of the child, are interviewed. Several ways of information gathering are adopted, which include interview, observation, and evaluation report, to enrich the results of the research. This study discovers that the phenomenon of visitation resistance and refusal is affected by many factors. One major factor is the parents’ views and responses to the child’s refusal of the visitation, a second factor is the child’s vulnerability under the stress of parental conflicts, and the third factor is the child’s feeling of need to take care of the residential parent. The research has found: 1. When the child in a separated family refuses to visit the nonresidential parent, the views of the situation from the residential and the nonresidential parents are different, it is not solely affected by the child’s behaviors and attitudes, but also is affected by their negative feelings from their past experiences in the marriage and during the separation. 2. Mental health professionals are able to understand visitation difficulties are the result of unwillingness of the residential parent, poor parenting skills of the nonresidential parent, high-conflicting situations, and/or combination of the above through a family systemic point of view. 3. There should be individually designed intervention for each child in a case based on the best interests of the child. The purpose is to repair the connection between the child and the nonresidential parent. Based on the findings, the researcher has reached the following conclusions: 1. Due to the fact that there are relational difficulties between the child and the nonresidential parent, and the effect of the attitude and reaction of family members, the phenomenon of visitation resistance and refusal should be understood through a family systemic perspective. 2. Court intervention needs to be able to evaluate the mental state of each family member and apply useful strategies to repair the relationship between the child and the nonresidential parent. 3. In this study, one of the limitations of repairing family member relationship is the short-term court intervention. The trust between the two parents who have been through marriage difficulties is not able to be repaired during a short-term intervention, and as a result, unstable visitations might come forth during high family conflict situations. Based on the research outcomes and analytic discussion above, the researcher would like to emphasize on the following: the need for long-term psychological counseling or therapy for any troubled individual in the family; the enforcement of the court intervention; and to take cultural issues in custody cases into intervention and evaluation consideration.