Turning Tables An Exploratory Study of Positive Outcomes from Individuals with Separated Parents

Abstract

Children from all over the Philippines are being labeled as delinquents just because of their family background. Broken families naturally have a negative connotation here in our country for there exist in these lands a close family ties culture and therefore, as most people would naturally conclude, that it naturally has negative effects as well. A lot of people would think it automatic that children would behave differently, meaning unpleasantly, if they come from a family that had been unsuccessful in keeping their home intact. This is what the researcher would want to prove wrong. The researcher would like to study how these children from broken families used their family situation as an inspiration in order for them to succeed and reach their goals in life. Since there is very little knowledge and resources about the topic, a formulative/ exploratory approach is needed to explore the issue. The target population, purposively selected, is individuals 18 and above with separated parents. They should also be those who turned out good despite of their family situation. The results show that there are factors involved that helped the respondents live a positive life. They are: age when the separation happened, alternative support/guardian, religion, hobbies, personal outlook in life, birth order and family size, and the sex of the absentee parent. The more factors present in an individual, the better. Knowing these factors would be helpful in creating counseling designs. This study might even establish priorities for future research and possibly be carried out in real-life or large scale settings.