Impliciete denkbeelden over de kindertijd: analyse van discussies over inspraak van kinderen in echtscheidingsprocedures

This paper reports about a reconstruction of some major pragmatic presuppositions in recent discussions in scientific media about assigning a say to children in settlements concerning parental divorce. Pragmatic presuppositions are the implicit views discussants assume to be taken for granted by their audience. Because of similar legislation in both countries, the analysis regards discussions with respect to the Dutch as well as the English situation; analysis mainly confirms the similarity of presuppositions in both discussions. Main results are: families are presupposed to be democratic unities allowing for full child participation; decisions are conceived for the long term; assigning rights should contribute to social an emotional development, but this dimension seems irrelevant as a precondition for assigning rights; especially cognitive competences function as pragmatic presuppositions with respect to preconditions for assigning rights; children are presupposed to be full human being in having basic rights; however, a majority of the discussants argue on the basis of the presupposition that welfare perspective should have priority over judicial perspective.