Abstract:
This study focuses on why single-parent families do not experience themselves as true families within a church context and do not receive the necessary equipment and support in the faith formation of their adolescent children. The study has its origins in the researcher's observation that adolescents from single-parent homes are picked up and dropped off by their parents for catechesis, but that the parents are not involved in activities in the congregation, not even to attend the worship service. The researcher decided to use Osmer's approach of Practical-Theological interpretation. One of the advantages of Osmer's approach is that the researcher can start research on any of the tasks. The researcher started with a normative task and did the literary study first. The family was studied as a hermeneutic sphere. The perspectives on the family from the Old and New Testaments were discussed. After that, a historical perspective followed, up to the present . The conclusion of this investigation is that the family is still the most important social unit, even though its structure has changed enormously in the last 50 years. Regarding this structural change of the family, the focus fell on the single-parent family. Single-parent families are not discussed much in the church context, but the study showed how deep their pain lives and what particularly difficult challenges they have to deal with every day. The adolescent came next. Adolescents in a single-parent family are actually good actors: At the home of the primary caregiver, they are themselves, but at the home of the other parent, actors who follow all the right moves and rules. The two hermeneutic spheres, as a source for the understanding of faith bring tension, because the other parent also wants to have a say in the adolescent's faith development and this differ from one home to the other. The empirical study had to answer to the hypothesis that the single-parent family does not experience acceptance in the church. Here the 17 respondents opened up their hearts and every interview was an emotional experience. The empirical study confirmed that single parents find it difficult to survive. The demands placed on them are intense and they depend on a support network to make the basic things of a family happen. They also believe that the church cannot help them with this. The research confirmed that single parents do not experience acceptance in the church and that they do not receive support in the faith formation of their children. In the last chapter, suggestions are made on how the perception of acceptance of the single-parent family can be addressed, as well as how they and their adolescent children can be equipped and supported to help them with their adolescents' faith formation. A factor that stood out was the involvement of parents (grandparents) in the single-parent families. It requires attending to, so that they can be better equipped to support their children.
