Hear hear! Child participation and their adjustment in the context of parental divorce and separation

Parental divorce or separation is considered a stressful life event for all family members involved, as it requires the reorganization of family roles, relationships, and routines. The many decisions that need to be made can take place at home, guided by a mediator or family counsellor, or settled by a court in case of family law proceedings. According to international human rights law, children have a legal right to participate in all decisions affecting them. It is also anticipated that adequate child participation can benefit children’s adjustment. However, especially in more complex divorces, inappropriate child involvement is a risk that can trigger children’s loyalty conflicts and self-blame. The ‘Hear hear’ project is a longitudinal, multi-method, and interdisciplinary research project that aims to examine the role of child participation at home, in courts, and with the mediator in the context of parental separation. During the Kolloquium we will: present the project’s general aims and methods, discuss a newly developed survey to measure child participation in divorce-related decisions (and its German translation), and specifically zoom in on the role of mediators in safeguarding children’s voices.

Speakers:
Dr. Rianne van Dijk obtained her PhD in 2022 at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. In her research project “Family break-up, system break-down”, she examined processes that explain how and under what circumstances family dynamics affect children’s psychosocial adjustment over time in recently divorced families. As an assistant professor, she continues her research on family functioning after parental separation. Currently, she is mainly involved in: (1) A longitudinal and multi-method project on children's participation in divorce-related decisions, together with colleagues from Pedagogy and Family law; (2) Research on the effectiveness of interventions in a divorce context, together with practitioners; And (3) a project on parent-adolescent interactions as dyadic, dynamic, and micro-level processes.

Selina Burgard van de Beek works as a PhD candidate in the research group Youth and Family at the Department of Education and Pedagogy at Utrecht University. She is part of the interdisciplinary ‘Hear hear’ research project, which investigates the extent to which children participate in decisions and agreements made around and after divorce. For her PhD-project (“See them, hear them?”), she will specifically examine how the voice of children is heard in the context of divorce mediation.