Master of Arts (Counselling & Guidance)

Post-traumatic growth (PTG) and post-divorce adjustments (PDA) following divorce are terms used to describe how a person who has experienced divorce recovers from his/her experience. However, there are significant gaps in clinical and theoretical understandings of the phenomenon of this experience as there are similar domains of growth/recovery in both PTG and PDA in divorcees. This study attempts to understand if there are any differences in themes between individuals who have experienced a high conflict divorce (HCD) and individuals who have experienced a low-conflict divorce (LCD). The nature of high-conflict divorce is determined by the presence of interpersonal conflict (IC) or legal conflict (LC) between spouses before, during, and after divorce. To investigate if there were any differences in themes, an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach was used. Six female participants were recruited from HELP Family Service Centre (HELPFSC), an organisation that provides services to clients from divorce families in Singapore. Three HCD participants and three LCD participants were selected for a semi-structured interview questionnaire (SSIQ), and their responses were transcribed for IPA analysis. Key themes that emerged from the participants were paired to constructs of PTG and PDA from the two different groups interviewed. Three key themes were identified: impacting the decision of divorce, personal meaning and sense-making after divorce, and adjustment after divorce. Limitations are discussed and future research is recommended.

The current study examined the relationship between perceived work stress, coping strategies, anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms among primary school teachers. In addition, it also studied if demographic variables such as gender, teaching experience and the roles in the school were correlated with perceived work stress, coping strategies, anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms. Similarly, the same demographic variables were used to see if there were any differences in the type of teacher stressors identified by the teacher participants across the three demographic groups.

This study found that perceived work stress was positively correlated to both adaptive and maladaptive coping as well as anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms. The beginning teachers, with less than 5 years of teaching experience reported significantly higher use of maladaptive coping as compared to their experienced counterparts, with 5 to 10 years of teaching experience. Teacher participants with leadership roles reported significantly higher level of stress due to the teaching stressor “Insufficient support from colleagues” and higher severity in depression symptoms as compared to those without leadership roles in the school.

Such findings will have implications on the customisation of the mental wellbeing programmes for school teachers. Limitations will be discussed and future research will be recommended.

The aim of this quantitative research is to find out if there is a correlation between the father-son relationship and the son’s desire for male intimacy. If there is a lack of a specific form of intimacy between father and son, would there result in a positive correlation in the type of intimacy that the son looks for in another male figure other than his father. Thus far there have not been any research which delve into the different aspects of a desire for male intimacy outside of sexual context and the focus of this research is not within the context of homosexuality but a heterosexual perspective from the son. This study also aims to find out if the son’s desire for male intimacy changes as the father-son relationship changes over different life stages.

An online survey was conducted and a total of 75 heterosexual males, age ranging from early 20s to late 30s and of different marital status, participated in the survey. A portion of the Father’s Presence Questionnaire (FPQ) was used as part of the survey. The questionnaire for the measurement of the Desire for Male Intimacy will be newly created with the questions taking reference from the Affectionate Communication Index which measures verbal, non-verbal and supportiveness displays of affection.

The results of this study showed a significant negative relationship between the father-son relationship and son’s desire for male intimacy during the National Service life stage of the son. However, there was no correlation that was significant at the other lifestages. There was also no significant relationship in the overall scores for the Father’s Presence Questionnaire and the Desire for Male Intimacy.

An asset-based approach such as Positive Deviance (PD) offers a credible alternate framework to need-based approaches for planning and developing projects of social relevance. Effective early childhood intervention for children with special needs is an area of priority which could benefit from an approach that seeks solutions from within the community to achieve favourable outcomes and reduce dependencies on external agencies. This qualitative study aims to better understand the application of a PD approach to coping with dual schooling of children with special needs facing early childhood challenges. Investigative inquiry into patterns of thought, emotion and behaviour of six at-risk, low resourced parents of developmentally delayed children, between the ages of 3 and 6 years of age, were carried out through individual interviews. The PD strategies employed in achieving favourable outcomes were identified. The results reported that despite the challenges and negative experiences recorded, these parents through their positive thoughts, emotional courage and adaptive and resilient behaviours seem to overcome their at-risk situations and emerge as winners. The implications for future research are discussed.

The study examined the relationships between the resilience of Singaporean adults and their perceptions of their fathers’ and mothers’ parenting styles. It also examined the differences in resilience between the male and female adults. A total of 172 Singaporean adults, aged between 23 and 76, participated and completed a questionnaire comprising the Parental Authority Questionnaire, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and demographic information questions in the study. Findings showed that both fathers’ and mothers’ authoritative parenting styles were positively correlated to resilience, while no relationships were found between both authoritarian and permissive parenting styles and resilience. No difference was found between Singaporean male adults and Singaporean female adults in resilience. The results suggested that the positive relationships between both parental authoritative parenting styles and Singaporean adults’ resilience could be made aware to parents, and that they could benefit from additional education with the knowledge of parenting styles, through counselling, intervention, programmes and policies. This in turn, could lead towards exercising an authoritative parenting style, and contributing to their children’s resilience. Authoritative parenting style could also be identified as a strength and protective factor of an individual whilst being challenged by stressors and adversities. Both genders were equally resilient and this might imply that both genders had comparable dispositional attributes as well as supporting systems and resources to adapt and bounce back from adversities.