| This study is devoted to the examination of the needs defined by the adolescents from divorced single-parent families, taking a qualitative approach with the combination of post-positivist paradigm and constructionist paradigm. The analysis is based on the materials stemming from the in-depth interviews of 15 cases in Shanghai. Holding the social perspective on children as active and interactive persons, and adopting the need theory from the viewpoint of social service in dealing with the complicated interactive relations between problems and resources, the study explores the needs defined by the adolescents in divorced single-parent families focusing on the relations between problems and the resources. It aims at four goals: (1) to find out the contents of the needs defined by the adolescents in divorced single-parent families; (2) to understand the adolescents' views on their needs; (3) to comprehend the adolescents' views on the satisfaction of their needs; and (4) to probe into the analytic framework for studying the needs of the adolescents in divorced single-parent families.; The major findings of the study include: (1) the teenagers in divorced single-parent families claim that their needs lie mainly in 6 dimensions: economy and safety, mentality and emotion, autonomy and self, love/respect and self-differentiation, peer communication and self identity, and removing moral troubles; (2) the adolescents in divorced single families think that their needs are spawned by the changes in the family structure and function caused by their parents' divorce and their own inner drives; (3) such adolescents believe that the satisfaction of their needs depends mainly on the response from their own initiative, family support (mainly the support by the custody's primary family) and social support; (4) the study of the needs of such adolescents must follow 4 principles: to understand and grasp the dynamic process of the engenderment and satisfaction of the needs, to understand and grasp the complicated interaction between problems/troubles and resources, to understand and grasp the subjective construction and response of those who have needs, and, to discriminate the difference between the general analytic framework and the particular analytic framework.; The study embraces two major features, one is studying the needs from the viewpoint of social service, i.e. conducting the study in the perspective of interactive relations between problems/troubles and resources; the other is that the study is oriented towards the self-defined needs, i.e. to regard the adolescents as persons with agency---not just studying on them, but study with them.; The gist of the study is that it outsteps the previous way of studying adolescents in divorced single-parent families with emphasis on the external criterion of academic performance, behavioural problems, etc., and makes a close scrutiny into their innermost feelings through exploring their own discourse structure about the source of resources when they encounter troubles, hence to put forward an analytic framework for the engenderment and satisfaction of their needs, so that one can grasp the unique needs of the special group of the children in the divorced single-parent families, and provide reference for social welfare policy and social work practice. |
