Hear, Hear! Nurturing Children's Self-Determination Through Participation in The Context of Parental Divorce

In the context of parental separation and divorce, respect for children’s voices and their legal right to participate are currently insufficiently guaranteed, partly due to a lack of empirical knowledge on how to best give effect to child participation in families, mediation, and courts. Following Self-Determination Theory (SDT), we expect adequate child participation to benefit children through fostering their autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Next to these anticipated benefits, the possible risks of child participation will be examined. Based on Family Systems Theory (FST), we expect that inappropriate child involvement can lead to boundary diffusion, triggering children’s loyalty conflicts and self-blame. Moreover, differences in these processes likely occur for different children, families, and situations. To empirically substantiate how children’s need for post-divorce self-determination can be nurtured through participation in the family, during mediation, and in courts, this interdisciplinary research project aims to examine: 1) the current practice of child participation, 2) its general risks and benefits for child adjustment, and 3) differential effects on children’s self-determination, boundary diffusion, and adjustment. These research aims translate into three work-packages, each covering all three divorce settings (family, mediation, and court). To answer our research questions, we will use advanced quantitative and qualitative methods at different timescales (macro and meso), from different levels of analysis (within- and between), involving multiple informants. Throughout the study, youth and professional expert panels will be consulted to finetune its design and execution, and to translate the findings into practical guidelines and tools to improve post-divorce child participation.