Abstract: This study investigated the children’s experiences of the familial stresses as a gauge of looking into their family dynamics. Primary emphasis was focused on the children’s psychological functioning in the context of their experienced stresses in their family. Creative expressive approaches were utilized to facilitate data gathering from 3 abused children who were housed in a government facility. The 3 girls suffered physical and/or sexual abuse, neglect and/or abandonment or the combinations of those. Qualitative analyses (genogram and thematic analysis) were employed to make sense of the data. Results suggested that children’s experiences of societal stresses can be ranged from intrafamilial (from ‘within’ the family) to extrafamilial (from ‘without’ the family). In spite of being under too much stress, children were observed to be authentic “family mirrors”: they can precisely measure and showcase the family’s dynamics including emotional patterns and overall functioning in an effortless and subconscious ways. This suggested that their experiences of stress seemed to be subliminal – they have a natural way of making sense of their experiences through their sheer ability to catch and understand the emotional contents of the messages they receive from the world, albeit uncritically. Hence, children’s behavior (or misbehavior) and ineffective ways of coping from their stressful experiences, tend to be a viable measure in appraising their family’s dynamics. Furthermore, it was likewise conclusive that marital relationship seemed to be a pivotal point in the maintenance of the family equilibrium.
Keywords: Family Dynamics, Children, Stress, Creative, Expressive, Phenemenological.
Title: Understanding Family Dynamics of Children under Stress: A Phenomenological Inquiry
Author: Argel B. Masanda
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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