Single Fathers’ Experience of Seeking-help and Receiving-help

[[abstract]]過去三十年來，台灣的家庭經歷了重大的變動，其中最引人注目的莫過於離婚率的增加帶動單親家庭的出現與成長。國內外已有研究指出相較於雙親家庭，單親家庭面對更多的經濟風險與壓力，這些不利因素可能導致單親家庭處於較高的貧窮風險與不利於子女發展的環境，進而影響其生活適應或帶來更複雜的社會問題（如貧窮、家庭暴力、犯罪、自殺、輟學等）。並指出社會支持有助於緩衝或減輕單親父母的生活壓力。然而，男性單親在福利服務使用率偏低，其原因為何？本研究目的在瞭解男性單親之生活困境及在福利系統中的求助經驗。研究者採深度訪談法邀請九位男性單親參與本研究，其研究發現如下： 1.男性單親與女性單親離婚後所面臨的問題是相似的，但不見得這些生活事件都會被他們注意到或列為亟需處理的首要問題。只有被個人定義為「問題」的項目，才會獲得個人積極地關注與思考因應的方式。在這些項目中，研究者發現男性單親都是離婚一、二年後才開始尋求福利資源的協助，訴求的問題以「子女教養」和「經濟」需求居多，有關「個人情緒和社會關係」的需求，多半是採取自我調適或同為單親者互相提供心理支持等方式解決。 2.不論男性或女性單親面對經濟問題時，正式資源常是他們最後的考量。其次，男性雖然在性別社會化的過程中未學習到相關育兒的知識及技巧，但研究發現這並未阻礙男性單親擔任父職的意願，反而他們會因男性氣概、經濟因素、原生父母健康狀況等因素選擇不去運用原生家庭的資源，並透過閱讀書籍、詢問其他單親家長的經驗、托育資源、改變工作型態等方式解決親職教養的壓力。 3.影響男性單親求助因素分別有六個層面分別為：個人因素（經濟狀況、親職能力、男性氣概、前一次求助經驗）、非正式資源因素（大多數地男性單親在面對生活壓力時，最先尋求協助的對象是原生父母、其次才是兄弟姊妹及朋友，只有在非正式資源中找不到資源可協助他解決問題時才會試著尋求正式資源的協助）、服務輸送體制因素（資訊與資源的可近性、福利申請及程序上的困難、服務內涵的適當性與否會影響男性單親的求助行為）、助人者之性別態度/偏見（有單親爸爸提出在申請福利的過程中遭遇助人者口語及非口語的不友善對待而影響其求助意願）、法令規章及機構政策（福利資源的不足及福利制度缺乏彈性也是影響求助的因素）、男人的原罪？（有五位單親爸爸提出他們在與人互動的過程中，或多或少都曾察覺到社會對男性不友善的性別偏見，進而影響他們求助的意願）。[[abstract]]The increase of single father’s families with children has been the most significant demographic trend for the last three decades in Taiwan. Previous researches indicate that there is a strong link between single parent family and risk of poverty. For children living in a single parent household, they may face higher risk of being poor, abused or neglect and expose to crime, suicide, school droop-out. Evidences also show that social support may help families to cope with non-anticipated events in the daily live and buffer family pressure by providing assistance. What are the reasons that single fathers tend to have lower social service take up rate than their counterpart? This study aims to explore what life pressure single fathers face to, and how they seek help and receive help within welfare systems. The researcher uses in-depth interview as data collecting method and finally 9 single fathers were interviewed. The main findings include: 1.It seems no big difference, between single fathers and single mothers, while they both face multiple life stresses. However, those life stresses aren’t meant to be noticed and dealt with. Most of the male single-parents start to seek social assistance one or two years later after the divorce, and will look for help first through formal social system, particularly for children rearing issue and financial difficulties. For mental health problem, single fathers’ coping strategies include, trying to find solution on one’s own、waiting for problem to go away、receiving emotional support from other single fathers, and so on. 2.Most single fathers see welfare as a last resort while coping with financial difficulties. While most fathers admit that they didn’t learn much about how to nurse and rear children in their socialization process, the missing of gender perspective in the process of caring children is quite obvious. The researcher found that this couldn’t hinder single fathers from parenting volition. However, because of the traditional masculinity, economic, parents’ physical condition, they may not to utilize the primary family resources. Besides, by reading related books, consulting other persons’ experience, seeking chides care service, occupying part-time job, they find ways of coping. 3.Other factors that affect single father’s seeking-help experience include, personal factors such as economic situation, parenting ability, post seeking-help experience; and informal social networks factors, for example, most single fathers seeking-help from their parent, brothers and sisters, friends. For social service delivery system, the factors include, service inaccessibility and complex procedure, social worker’s gender sensibility and some policy issues.[[note]]碩