Skip to main content

Fathers’ Involvement with Their Children Before and After Separation

Haux, Tina, Platt, Lucinda (2020) Fathers’ Involvement with Their Children Before and After Separation. European Journal of Population, . ISSN 0168-6577. E-ISSN 1572-9885. (doi:10.1007/s10680-020-09563-z) (KAR id:72372)

PDF Publisher pdf
Language: English


Download (782kB)
[thumbnail of Haux-Platt2020_Article_FathersInvolvementWithTheirChi.pdf]
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format
PDF (Complete text, tables and supplementary tables) Author's Accepted Manuscript
Language: English
Download (837kB) Preview
[thumbnail of Complete text, tables and supplementary tables]
Preview
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-020-09563-z

Abstract

Changes in fathering over the last decades have led to substantially more involvement of fathers in their children’s upbringing. At the same time, high rates of parental separation and subsequent loss of contact fuel concern about separated fathers’ role in their children’s lives. Underlying such concern is the assumption that separation represents a discontinuity in fathers’ parenting. This paper investigates whether fathers’ pre- and post-separation paternal involvement is linked: are fathers with lower levels of contact after separation those who were less involved fathers when co-resident? To answer this question, we draw on a nationally representative UK longitudinal study of children born in 2000-2001 to interrogate the links between fathering before and after separation for 2,107 fathers, who separated from the child’s mother before the child was age 11. We show that fathers who were more involved parents prior to separation tend to have more frequent contact after separation, adjusting for other paternal and family characteristics. The size of this association between pre- and post-separation fathering is, however, modest; and even among more involved fathers, intensity of contact declines over time.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1007/s10680-020-09563-z
Uncontrolled keywords: Fathering, Parental separation, Contact, Nonresidential fathers, UK, Millennium Cohort Study
Subjects: H Social Sciences
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Tina Haux
Date Deposited: 12 Feb 2019 09:38 UTC
Last Modified: 10 Dec 2022 04:21 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/72372 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)
Haux, Tina: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7140-019X
  • Depositors only (login required):

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year