Study Of Casework Intervention For Improving Communication Between Seafarers And Their Children

Ships are major carriers of cargo in international trade.As pioneers at sea,seafarers play an important role in promoting trade,creating value,and exchanging culture in the global community.China is a great seafarer supplier and has the most seafarer resources in the world.In recent years,with massive loss of seafarers in China,issues closely related to seafarers have drawn increasing attention.Family factors are important in influencing career choice.Parent-child relationship is prominent in family problems.The way and the depth of parent-child communication manifest how parent-child relationship is.Therefore,communication between seafarers and their children is worthy of in-depth study.This author studied the issue through literature analysis,interviews,questionnaires and other sociological research methods.It was found that many factors have negative affected communication between seafarers and their children,including periodicity of seafarers' work and vocation schedules,enclosed working environment,limitation of communication with family members,lack of parenting skills,intermediate role of seafarers' spouses,and support from manning agencies.This study explored the effects of psychosocial therapy on addressing seafarers'parent-child communication problems by using the direct and indirect treatment techniques to intervene communication of seafarers and their children and spouses.Based on the person-in-situation theory,comprehensive study of seafarers,their children,and their spouses was conducted.With intervention of social workers,seafarers attached more attention to communication with their children,improved parent-child communication skills,and changed inappropriate communication methods.At the same time,it was proved the psychosocial treatment theory and intervention skills were suitable for intervening seafarers'parent-child communication problems.Finally,through review and reflection of three intervention cases,suggestions were made to improve communication between seafarers and their children in terms of seafarers,seafarers' spouses and crew service agencies.This study may be treated as empirical reference for further study of social work involvement aimed at improving communication between seafarers and their children.It also provides effective seafarer management measures for shipping companies and manning organizations,and offers reference for solving the problems in family relations faced by seafarers.