A study of the subjective experience of single fathers in help seeking process: Using a civil institution in New Taipei City as an example.

• Main Authors: Huang, shihwen, 黃詩文
• Other Authors: 謝文宜
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/99228164011164457554

碩士 === 實踐大學 === 社會工作學系碩士班 === 100 === Family structure has been under rapid social changes, and two-parent family is no longer the mainstream. The number of single-parent families has been growing, and there is a noticeable increase of male single-parent families. Due to the influence of traditional values, male single parents seem to worry about how others would look at their help seeking behaviors, which sometimes reduces their self-esteem and their willingness to disclose themselves in the help seeking process. This study hopes to explore male single parents’ help seeking process and their use of outside resource, in order to find out the push and pull factors in the process. Seven male single parents participated in this study, and in-depth interviews were used to collect information. The focus of the interview was on their needs, their stresses, their process of seeking NGO’s help, and their subjective experience throughout the process. The researcher hopes to further integrate those male single parents’ experience to find out the internal and external resources they utilized. This information can help to provide social workers more understanding and knowledge when assiting such clients. The results are as follow: 1, Internal resources: "for the children" was the major source of strength; the belief of "wanting to get out of poverty sooner" was closely related to their self-esteem; “the influence from the family of origin” reminded them to consider the best interests of children; and "willingness to give back" helped to enhance their sense of self-worth. 2, External resources: "NGO provides relevant resources" helped to stable their lives; "family support" was the basic source of stability and strength; “social workers’ professional intervention” helped the development of their self-awareness ability; "support from friends" made up for their lack of enough family support; "faith" soothed their wounded souls; "school resources" provided their children of stable schooling environment. Finally, some recommendations are provided for government and non-governmental social welfare units and social workers.