1.

0 INTRODUCTION

Children are blessings and responsibility given by Allah SWT to a married couple. This

responsibility is meant to be taken seriously by both the mother and the father. They have to

ensure basic necessity such as food, drinks, clothes and shelter are provided perfectly. More than

that parents carry a big role in developing the child’s personalities in order for them to be a

beneficial person for the family, society, religion and country.

According to the divorce registration from 2012 until 2014 from Lembaga Penduduk dan

Pembangunan Keluarga Negara (LPPKN), 92, 678 couples had registered for divorce. This is a

very worrying fact for all for which most of the time the children would be a victim in this case.

According to LPPKN, 7 main reasons are identified to cause divorce and eventually causing the

child to be abandoned and received less attention from the parents (Utusan Online, 4 March

2016).

No doubt those divorces in couple contribute to negative effects towards the children.

They would lose a functioning parent from one of the parents either a mother or a father since

they would be taken cared by only one of them. Eventually, the children would lose the perfect

care especially in the aspect of the child character and personality development. Norhayati

Zulkefli and Zaidah Mustapha (2016) stated that the center of living emotion, support and

encouragement lies in the family system. If the parents are divorced, the children would lose the

emotional support and love they essentially need.

Divorce would put the children on a stress for which they had been a victim of a broken

family. Most probably they would suffer from emotional development problem and internal
conflict. Pressure upon pressure would deteriorate the soul for which they would become

rebellious and prone to involve in the mischief behaviours.

Research from Norruzeyati Che Mohd Nasir (2016) showed that there are several family

aspects that contribute to delinquent behaviour in the teenage girl. Those are low socioeconomic

status, divorced parents, disharmony in the relationship within the parents and the uncomfortable

feeling within the household.

Wallerstein et. al (2003) in Norhayati Zulkefli dan Zaidah Mustapha (2016) concluded

that a complete family which comprises of both parents are better at providing emotional

management than a family without the presence of both parents. Thus, it is very crucial for

divorced family to ensure that their children are provided with adequate emotional management

so that they are not keen for any mischief behavior due to lack of emotional control from both of

their parents.

Jas Lailee Suzana Jaafar (2008) stated that there are three factors that influence the effect

of pressure upon teenagers. Those are the amount of pressure, social support obtained and the

coping mechanism applied to deal with the stressful events. Hauser dan Bowlds (1990) in Jas

Lailee Suzana Jaafar (2008) mentioned that teenagers with adequate social support for example

from their friends, parents, siblings, relatives or adults are less prone for negative effects of

dealing with stressful events. Support towards the teenagers and parents who are divorced are

helpful in building emotional strength to face any situation so that they could live a better life.

Researches from the studies before this are focusing more on the effects of divorce on the

children from the emotional perspective rather than the supports that the child should receive

from a divorced parents that could help the child to manage their emotion after the divorce. A
study on the supports that the children should receive would be helpful in evaluating how far one

support could help teenagers from divorced parents to cope with their emotions after the divorce.

Thus, this causes a question to emerge. It is related to the social support that received by

the teenagers from the divorced parents and how the support received affecting the emotional

management of the teenagers. Om that note, this study will focus on identifying the social

support received from the divorced parents and evaluating the effect of the supports on the

emotional management of a teenager.

A study by Norhayati Zulkefli dan Zaidah Mustapha (2016) found out that social support

are very essential for children who are from divorced parents. They need to adjust themselves

and manage their emotions in a very good manner after the divorce. Children with good

relationship with the parents or one of the parents are able to cope with the situation better.

Whereas, children without good social support from their parents or one of their parents, are

unable to handle the situation well. Consequently, children who fail to express their emotions

will feel pressured and will continue to contain their emotion. They are vulnerable to get

involved in mischief behaviors such as causing problem at school, losing focus in study and

eventually are prone to skip school.

Sabilla Hasanah et. al.(2016) in her study related to counselor roles towards teenagers

from the broken home stated there are three main effects that would affect teenagers aftermath

the divorce of their parents which are lack of parental attention and love who would be busy

resolving their conflict. Second, physical and psychological needs of the teenagers would not be

fulfilled and would not be provided efficiently. Third, teenagers would be lacking of good

physical and mental development in order to live a better life. Thus, by providing group guidance
and counseling, these would help them to enhance their feelings, thinking, perceptions,

aspirations and characters which would build an effective personalities other than its role to

develop good communication skills verbally or non-verbally in order for the, to communicate

comfortably with their friends.

Turner and Stets (2005) stated that study on emotion is very crucial and comprehensive

from the perspective of sociology and anthropology. Especially emotion towards teenagers is one

of the essential aspects to be studied and discussed in the society. Although many had argued

that the study on emotion is in line with the psychology discipline due to its individualistic nature

and only psychologist would understand it, Goleman (1995) in Hamidah Sulaiman et. al (2013)

stated that individual success is not only based on the intellectual intelligent but emotional and

social intelligent as well as fate are factors that would define one’s success. On that note, it is

essential for teenagers to received social support in order to help them in their emotional control

after the divorce of their parents.

Teenagers from the divorced parents would have to face emotional conflict after the

divorce. This statement is supported by Lucas and Richard (2005) who stated that problematic

marriage would inflict negative effects indirectly towards the spouse, children and community.

Mustaffa, Ramli, Hassan, (2004) found out that teenagers are victims of the broken marriage or

divorce and they have sensitive feelings and would sometimes become aggressive depending on

the situation. Adulthood and maturity somehow would help them to contain their aggressiveness

that may occur due to the divorce problems. Thus, social supports from all party would really

help the teenagers in their emotional control so that they did not stray away from the path that

would lead them to bad conduct.

 Maslow (1943) brought up the concept of self-actualization which is gaining personal

potential which are valuable for the individual. Mankind according to Maslow has their own

inner power which helps them to create their own maximum personal potential which is called

self-actualization. There are five stages in obtaining the self-actualization starting from essential

needs which is the physiological needs followed by security, social needs, honor and lastly which

is the highest stage, the self-actualization. In order to help the teenagers from the divorced

parents in their emotional management so that they can adjust themselves correctly in this

situation, the teenagers are in need of their social supports from the people surrounding them so

that they can progress and react better in the situation that they are facing.

2.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this study, qualitative study method is used to collect the data to identify the social

support towards the teenagers from the divorced parents and the effects on the emotional

management of the teenagers. Qualitative study method is more suitable in this study because

this method can explain every variable in a more holistic manner of an event without any

manipulation from the researchers. According to Merriam (2009), qualitative researchers are

keen to find the mankind understanding of the meaning that built by them, which is the way that

mankind build meaning and experience which obtained from their life.

Case studies used in this study are using qualitative method. Information are obtained

from the respondents using interviews. Stake (2005) explained that, case studies are being more

and more acceptable to the qualitative researchers. However, Stake reported that case study is not
just a form of qualitative study, but a study that are carried out analytically and in holistic

approach. Stake firmly stated that a case can be very simple or it would be very complex and

focused such as if the study needed to study the psychological development of an infant in a

divorced family or study the learning development of a class of students. In this situation, stake

suggested that case study is a form of study to reanalyze the theory, suggest certain new aspect of

study in a complex case study and prove in the context that are not being generalized by the

study population.

Besides, Cresswell (2008) also explain case study in a wider perspective. According to

Cresswell, case study is a form of ethnography study that is related to the program, events or

activities involving individuals. In his explanation, Cresswell firmly stated that case study would

analyse something in depth to identify “what”, “why”, “how”, of an event happening. This study

uses Purposive Sampling technique to identify the social support obtained by the teenagers from

the divorced parents and analyse the effect of the support towards the teenagers’ emotional

management. Researcher also choose to use semi-structured interview as an instrument in this

study.

Semi-structured interview is used in this study. Interview is carried out with a respondent

using collecting data technique involving face-to face interaction. Interview protocols are a list of

questions that will be asked during the interview. Only main questions are provided, follow-up

questions are based on the answers given by the respondent. Respondent are given questions at

first for trial so that the interview could be carried out smoothly. Researcher would try to avoid

any disruption during the interviews such as choosing a place which are safe and suitable without

any disruption from other people such as the passer-by.

 Merriam (1998) in Mustaffa, Mohamed & Ahmad, Roslee (2005) stated that the use of

structured interviews to gain precise information such as the sociodemografic information, age,

income, marital status, education status and et.cetera. In contrary, semi-structured interviews are

more flexible in nature which allows the respondent to elaborate on their thoughts to the

researcher.

Semi-structured interview is used as the collecting data technique based on the suitability

of this research title. Rapport is established before the interview to ensure the integrity of the

answers which are confidential and individualistic without any influence from any party. Semi-

structured interview chosen comprises collected question based on the conceptual question to

study the understanding phenomenon according to Marshall and Rossman (2006). Discussion on

the study is listed based on the question given and the relations are established towards the social

actions which are closely related with the study. Questions collection are done and are arranged

to identified the related question which are suitable to be used in this study.

Audio recording is done to enquire precise data in the interview. After the audio

recording of the interviews, the findings are analysed and researcher will create transcript of the

interview and ‘coding’ table will be produced to identify precisely the finding based on the

objective of this study and to make relations based on the collected question before the study

begins. Report will be produced after researcher had already analysed and relate based on the

collected findings. Interview transcripts are also used as the study findings.