The Lived Experiences of Children/Young People in the Aotearoa-New Zealand Family Court System

Date
2023-12-03
Authors
Orr, K
Dickinson, A
Smythe, E
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract

This qualitative study explores the experiences of young people with professionals as they traverse the family court in Aotearoa-New Zealand. A hermeneutic phenomenological lens, based on the writings of Heidegger, Gadamer, van Manen and Buber, explored this phenomenon, which was embedded in the notion that young people need to have agency, the ability to act, to speak and to share their thoughts in matters that affect them. Six young people aged 8–16 years, four lawyers for the children, four specialist report writers (psychologists) and one parent were interviewed. Each interview was crafted into a story, which were then interpreted into “themes”, to allow the young person's experiences to be better understood and presented. This article focuses on one aspect of the young person's experiences as reported by them. The key insight was that the professional who engages in extra-ordinary listening about the young person's experience of what matters to them, can build a space of trust, the “between”, the gap between two people where mutual authenticity can exist, where discussion can occur, and where the professional can hear, respect and represent the young person's views at the decision-making phase of Court proceedings.

Description
Keywords
48 Law and Legal Studies , 4806 Private Law and Civil Obligations , Pediatric , 7.1 Individual care needs , Mental health , 1801 Law , 4804 Law in context , 4805 Legal systems
Source
Family Court Review, ISSN: 1531-2445 (Print); 1744-1617 (Online), Wiley, 62(1), 176-193. doi: 10.1111/fcre.12773
Rights statement
© 2023 The Authors. Family Court Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.