Image of family structure by 6—8 years children in the situation of divorce

This article is presenting the results of the research of 6—8 years old children's perception of their family structure. The research was carried out in 2009—2010. Initially the research had the traditional scheme (design). There were two groups of children — an experimental group (children from divorced families) and a control group (children from non-divorced families). However, it became clear in the course of research that the data we gathered in experimental group was of the heterogenic quality. We had also involved in the research the parents of children from divorced families for the more detailed analysis of every divorce history. That helped us to systematize differences in divorce group. Thereby the group of children from divorced families was divided in two subgroups — with «good» («finished») and «bad» («unfinished») divorce. As it turned out, this dividing was clearly connected with differences in experimental group's children's perception of their family structure. So we had become closer to experimental establishing of empirical effects of «good» or «constructive» and «bad» or «unconstructive» divorce situations — through differences in children's perception of their family. This part of the research could be considered as flight, but the obtained results point out new questions in actual psychological theory of divorces.

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