Abstract
D.Ed.
Statistics in the media have given a grim picture about unemployment in South Africa.
The question was asked about the influence of the father's unemployment on
adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 years, who is part of the same family
system as the father. Taking into account the important role the family has to fulfil in the
development of the adolescent, the researcher wondered to what extent the
adolescent's way to adulthood was influenced by the fact that the father and the family
was not available to fulfil the role of supporter and caregiver. The father had to deal with
his own emotions and feelings and was not available for the adolescent. How did it
influence his/her development?
The sample criteria were formulated to include adolescents between the ages of 13 and
17 years whose fathers lost their jobs and who were unemployed at present (having lost
their jobs not longer than three months ago). The criteria also included adolescents who
were adversely affected by the existential crisis in the form of the father's
unemployment.
Phenomenological interviews were conducted to determine the adolescents' experience
of the father's unemployment. The results, in short, indicated that three emotions were
experienced namely fear, insecurity and anger. It was evident that the adolescents did
not apply constructive skills to handle the crisis but merely used strategies to survive
every day. These strategies lead to the deterioration of relationships with the self and
significant others. Their hopes and perception of the future were also negatively
influenced. This lead to the adolescents not experiencing a form of well-being and
survival was the only prerogative.
The researcher decided to look at the construction of a model to support these
adolescents by helping them gain personal insight so that in the end, well-being will be
experienced. The development of the model proceeded in four stages. During Stage
one, concepts were identified, defined and classified after the completion of the
fieldwork. The central concept was defined as ''facilitating interaction': and associated
concepts were the educational psychologist, the adolescent, the existential crisis,
interpersonal processes to apply to the crisis and the reaching of certain goals. Guba 's
model was applied to ensure trustworthiness in the qualitative methodology. This refers
to the credibility, transferability, reliability and verification of the research.
The relationship between concepts was drawn in Step one, the description of the model
followed in Step three and the guidelines in operationalising the model followed in Step
four. In this research, Steps three and four were integrated and not discussed
separately.
The model is aimed at supporting the adolescents by applying facilitative interaction to
gain personal insight and thus applying more constructive skills to the handling of
psychological processes, which will lead to the well-being of the adolescent where
problemsolving skills are an integral part of the process. This is indicative of the
improvement in the relationship with the self and significant others. The researcher
hopes that these skills will become a /ifeski/1 to be applied to other situations.
The main theme of the model is:" Assistance to adolescents whose fathers lost their
jobs: an educational psychological model".