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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
relates to a parent with whom they are not in personal contact.
This behavior is most likely to be established while in exclusive
care of the mother. It can be assumed that in this kind of care
parents are unable to reach a common parental agreement, which
teenagers perceive as one of the sources of conflict between the
parents. It can be assumed that the adolescent is under
psychological pressure, which can be revealed by limited and
selective communication with parents on both subsystems
mother-adolescent, father-adolescent. Similar results in terms of
communication were found by Horská and Lacinová (2015).
They found that communication in divorced family is weaker
than in complete families; however harmony and respect for
parents does not change. Living with the mother does restricts
the physical presence of the father, and therefore it can be
assumed that the limited communication applies especially
towards the father. Mothers' expectations, their verbal and non-
verbal expressions to eliminate contact with fathers may lead
adolescents to conceal emotions from the other parent.
Understanding this new situation teaches adolescents to accept
mother's requirements, and to adapt to new situations. It may be
assumed that this is one of the reasons why the emotional
relationship between the adolescent and the father can be
weakened. Another can be the negative perception of their
parents’ relationship. Warshak (1996) states that fixation to the
parent is equally linked to the effort to satisfy this parent’s
requirements. Another reason for limited communication with
fathers may be caused in discussions with adolescents where the
mother reduces the father's value as a partner. Mother’s negative
memories on previous cohabitation with father and their
presentation in discussions may be the result of forming a
mother-adolescent coalition. This disturbance in communication
with father as a consequence of a new formation of a coalition
with mother is confirmed by many authors (eg. Greenberg, et.
al.,1983; Horth, et. al. 2000;
Démuthová, Balcerčíková, 2012;
Popelková, Mal
čeková, 2013, and others). The absence of a
father in a new setting is a restriction of physical proximity,
which is very important for the further development of trusted
communication. Limiting communication face to face and
through eye contact creates a barrier to share feelings, and
spontaneous expressions of emotions. The absence of a father in
everyday life contributes to elimination of joint activities to a
great extent. It may be thought that the absence of a father in the
family, and the need to differentiate between mother and father,
may lead to a great deal of restraint in expressing their views,
attitudes, and emotions. Ross, Wynne (2010) states that
unfriendliness between parents can be an obstacle for the
formation of harmony. The question therefore arises as to
whether the isolation of a non-resident parent is one of the
reasons for not having an interest in participating further in a
child’s upbringing. Conclusions from previous research findings
indicate that the optimal form of contact after divorce is the free
continuation of the family relationship. According to Warshak
(1996), the understanding of both parents that their parenting
responsibilities continue can help maintain a relationship with
both parents after a divorce. The agreement on participation in
such responsibilities, timing and form of guardianship is only
applicable if accepted by both parents. Support for shared
childca
re is found in Matějček (2000). According to the author,
two separate living environments are acceptable, but only if they
do not create significant conflicts. These findings support our
results with regard to joint and alternate care. We found that in
such environments, the adolescent communicates openly with a
father. It can be assumed that such parental agreement works if
parents are able to constructively communicate. Sturge-Apple et.
al. (2010) report that the ability to reach an agreement can
contribute to maintaining family harmony. The other findings
show post-divorce families and the relationship of trust and
communication between adolescents and their friends. The social
environment created by friends is an opportunity for them to
express themselves spontaneously and openly. Our findings
point out the importance of friendly relationships, where
adolescents can share their feelings and emotions. In this
context, Doktorová (2013) states that for the period of early
adolescence, it is important to develop social competences. It can
be said that friends act as a factor in self-creation of self-
expression and open communication, and thus creates adolescent
space for congruence. Friends in early adolescence begin to take
an important place in their life and are an important factor in
their social environment. The need of self-expression, openness
and congruence within peer groups brings also risks, mainly if
adolescent does not have harmonic and stable family
environment (Rojková, 2016). The results also highlight an
adolescent’s communication problems, but we interpret these
cautiously due to the low number of respondents in the research
sample. The selection of respondents was carried out in a
pedagogical-psychological counseling center, where the
psychologist consulted the family in a post-divorce setting. It can
be said that parents have some willingness to solve the problem.
This aspect has helped us to get a sample where children do trust
their parents. Another situation is in families where there are
serious disrupting problems of the dyadic relationship (mother -
adolescent, father - adolescent) and the triadic relationship
(mother – father - adolescent). In the future, it would be
interesting to see research pertaining to families where trust is
disturbed by both, or some of, the parents. However, the
question in this case remains to what extent parents would be
willing to participate, and would give their consent to complete
the appropriate questionnaires. The focus on a narrow
development period, namely the period of early adolescence,
also represents limitation and therefore the results cannot be
generalized for this reason. However, they help us to create a
picture of a specific development period, such as early
adolescence. The focus on two-years after the divorce period
was to determine the perception of communication at a time of
intense change, related to the divorce. Within this timeframe,
many changes could be already applied in this new family
structure, which could have affected the results. Another
limitation is the focus on mother’s sole care. Interestingly, it
would be worthwhile to examine the trust in communication in
families with sole care of fathers. However, this type of sub-
family arrangement is unique. The uneven distribution of the
sample did not allow us to identify gender differences, which
could be considered as a further limitation of the research. We
realize that other variables have not been included in this
research, these include situational or personality variables.
8 Conclusion
Based on these results, it can be said that joint custody
minimizes estrangement with the father, and it creates a certain
communication strain on a relationship with both parents. The
post-divorce family arrangements complicate the possibility of
open communication with both parents at the same time, but do
not interfere with the congruence of an adolescent's relationship
with their friends.
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