World Education Connect Multidisciplinary e-Publication, Vol. VI, Issue III (March 2026), pp.321-334
Mark Lemuel L. Arceo
High School Guidance Coordinator
Concepcion Holy Cross College, Inc.
Abstract
The present research utilized a qualitative research design based on the hermeneutic phenomenological approach in order to explain how parental absence affects the psychological and emotional environment of adolescents who are practically left-behind. This study focused on lived experiences, mental health conditions, and coping strategies of senior high school students not living with their parents at Concepcion Holy Cross College, Inc. The information was collected by semi-structured interviews with six purposively chosen participants and examined by thematic analysis and interpretive meaning-making to find the essences of their survival and adaptation.
The results showed that there were five main emotional issues, namely the longing (lasting) combined with the feelings of envy, the trauma of abandonment (the so-called missing piece), the silent struggle with isolation and non-acceptance, the spillover effect, which adversely influenced academic performance, and adaptive numbing. Students were asked to counter these stressors by using four main coping strategies, which included cognitive restructuring to maturity, forming an alliance with peers and siblings, strategic distraction in academic or household activities and establishing modified expectations as a protective withdrawal process. These findings indicate that in as much as students display functional resilience, they often go through significant levels of internal distress and emotional compartmentalization.
The project provides the 3S Guidance and Counseling Intervention Model whereby priorities are given to: (1) safe spaces and trauma-sensitive school practices; (2) structured grief processing and emotional literacy; and (3) social support and resilience-building. This model aims to move students, not just to survive but to undergo the whole process of emotional healing and academic success.
Keywords: Parental absence, OFW children, coping mechanisms, mental health, hermeneutic phenomenology, resilience.
