Barns egne stemmer i mekling – En kvalitativ studie av barns erfaringer i obligatorisk mekling etter foreldres samlivsbrudd/skilsmisse

Abstract

Children`s participation in mediation after parent`s brake-up/divorce is a political priori area. Our focus on the importance of preventive work gave us interest in investigating this theme further. The aim was to clarify children`s experiences from participation in mandatory mediation. We focused on how the children`s voices were weighted when the arrangement of care was made, and how the children wanted to be met in mediation. Our research-questions were: «How do children experience their voices being weighted in mandatory mediation after parent`s brake-up/divorce»? and «Which wishes of change in mediation do they tell about»? The study is Qualitative and is hermenutical-phenomenological anchored. We interviewed four children (age 14-18) and used Malteruds systematical condensation of text in analysis of the data. Results showed that children`s voices in our study mainly were weighted when the arrangement of care was made. Parents` and mediators presence and attentiveness was important for how the children`s experiences turned out to be (e.g parents` corporation and mediators involvement). The children gave concrete suggestions to how they wanted to be met in mediation, for example that they wanted mediator to contact them after mediation, to hear how they were coping. Research for the future may be a similar project with several informants to thoroughly investigate the theme, and maybe strenghten reliability. Research with aim to clarify parents` and mediators perspective is also topical, because children`s experiences cannot be seen without relating to parent`s and mediators influence. Key-words: mandatory mediation, family office, arrangement of care, children`s voices