Research findings

Working Fathers

• Work/ life balance - does it matter?

  “It is becoming increasingly evident that the expectations that fathers have of the way and amount they are involved directly with their children is altering. Fathers want to spend more time with their children, and are doing more of the direct care for them.”

  Working Families and Lancaster University Management School (2010) Work-life balance: working for fathers? Interim Report - New Findings, http://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/admin/uploads/Fathers%20research%20project%20interim%20report.pdf

   

• How can flexible working hours benefit fathers' work-life balance?

  “Working flexibly has a significant positive impact on fathers over those who don’t work flexibly. Fathers who were working flexibly have better physical and psychological health, are less stressed, are more committed to their employer and enjoy better relationships with their colleagues...Fathers on a low income feel less stressed and more in control if they are able to work flexibly.”  

  Working Families and Lancaster University Management School (2010) Work-life balance: working for fathers? Interim Report - New Findings, http://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/admin/uploads/Fathers%20research%20project%20interim%20report.pdf

• How can flexible working hours benefit employers?

  “No organisation wants to cultivate a culture of dissatisfaction and low morale, yet the interplay between arrangements in the domestic sphere and the work one can be significant influencers on ‘performance’ in both. However, the interplay is subtle and difficult for organisations to capture and understand. How many organisations, for example, know about the varying level of stress in fathers in relation to the number of children they have, and how these are mediated by the income. Further efforts to engage meaningfully with fathers, to the same degree that mothers are engaged with, will be beneficial to fathers not only in terms of understanding more, but also in increasing the visibility and opportunities for engagement with fathers.”

  Working Families and Lancaster University Management School (2010) Work-life balance: working for fathers? Interim Report - New Findings, http://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/admin/uploads/Fathers%20research%20project%20interim%20report.pdf

Shared Parenting

• Is the traditional 'weekend dad' formula outdated for the majority of children after the separation of their parents?

  Based on the research mentioned below, Families Need Fathers believes that traditional visiting patterns and guidelines where parents are divorced or separated are, for the majority of children, outdated, unnecessarily rigid, and restrictive. They fail, in both the short and long term, to address their best interests. Research-based parenting plan models offering multiple options for living arrangements following separation and divorce more appropriately serve children’s diverse developmental and psychological needs.

  Children’s Living Arrangements Following Separation and Divorce: Insights from Empirical and Clinical Research, Joan B. Kelly, Family Process, Vol. 46, No.1, 2006
  

  “Fortnightly amusement-park parenting (the old 80-20% formula) contributes little to developing meaningful parent-child relationships.”  

  Distress Among Young Adults from Divorced Families, Laumann-Billings L and Emery, Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 14, pp 671-687, 2002 
  
  Most guidelines were designed as a one-size-fits-all prescription that children would live in the primary custody of the residential parent for all but two weekends during a 4-week cycle, and “visit” 4 days out of 28 with the non-resident parent, most often fathers. This parenting plan was simple to apply, required no judicial or psychological analysis, and reflected the untested but strongly held belief that children would be psychologically harmed if they have more than one home.”

  Children’s Living Arrangements Following Separation and Divorce: Insights from Empirical and Clinical Research, Joan B. Kelly, Family Process, Vol. 46, No.1, 2006

• How many children in separated families share their time equally between both parents?

  In England, a recent estimate was that 11% of children in separated families share their time equally between both parents.

  Problematic Contact After Separation and Divorce? A National Survey of Parents, Peacey, V. and Hunt, J., London, One Parent Families/Gingerbread, p19., 2008. See also I'm Not Saying It Was Easy. Peacey, V. and Hunt, J., London, One Parent Families/Gingerbread, 2009 

• What factors determine the relationship between children and their separated parents?

  When parents mediate rather than use the adversarial process to reach parenting agreements, joint legal custody agreements are reached more frequently, and the details of joint decision-making are more often spelled out clearly

  Emery, 1994; Kelly 1993, 2004
  
  Many factors determine the extent of contact between fathers and their children following separation and divorce, among them institutional barriers and adversarial processes, psychological and relationship variables, interparental conflict, children’s willingness to maintain contact, the relocation of either parent, and the repartnering and remarriage of parents.

  Children’s Living Arrangements Following Separation and Divorce: Insights from Empirical and Clinical Research, Joan B. Kelly, Family Process, Vol. 46, No.1, 2006 

  A Cambridge University longitudinal study took issue with the myth that non-resident fathers often simply fade away from the children’s lives:
  
  Some 60 per cent of fathers who rarely saw their children were in dispute with ex-wives about the frequency of contact.
  Nearly half the fathers who never had children staying overnight described ongoing disagreements with their ex-wives, often centred around new partners.
  In most cases, the new partner identified by fathers as the source of conflict was that of the ex-wife - in other words, a potential or actual stepfather.
  Of the fathers who had seemingly 'dropped out' by 1992, 74 per cent wished to change what was, for them, an unsatisfactory situation.   

  Renegotiating Fatherhood, Janet Walker, Peter McCarthy and Bob Simpson, Relate Centre for Family Studies, February 1997

• What is an involved father?

  “An involved father is one who reads to his child, takes outings with his child, is interested in the child’s education and takes an equal role in managing his child.”
  
  [This quote is from the publicity for the 2002 report. See http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/PO/releases/2002/march/involved.aspx?data=%2fFrXHTl993oKsh8VW8oB0l9rNeTwshLdXn1jqAGEU4sdxxDlSsLQcA6mSEzd9tzvuxJ9mGuUV7C3DHGYtxGSIzT1rfAL48melAqFtHbs%2b2pmNRDsWHshfnQEka5exBS7TS%2f%2b2uw5LOYZTl%2fDiNS2ar0SzQEVzgSr46MFYqHYSHDPe%2fe5CXU0FUmL1Toj4McyfLG9Q4lWp8Q%3d&xu=0&isAwardHolder=&isProfiled=&AwardHolderID=&Sector=]
  
  Involved Fathers Key for Children, Dr Eirini Flouri and Prof Ann Buchanan, ESRC, 2002 

• Currently, how much time do children spend with their 'non-resident parent'?

  An ONS Survey indicated that:
  

  • Overall, at least half of all children surveyed had some form of contact (direct or indirect) with their non-resident parent at least once a week.
  • 43% of children in the resident parent sample and 59% of children in the non-resident parent sample had direct contact with their non-resident parent at least once a week.
  • A further nine per cent of children in the resident parent sample and 18% of children in the non-resident parent sample had indirect contact at least once a week.
  • A fifth (21%) of children in the resident parent sample and a tenth (10%) of children in the non-resident parent sample had direct contact with their non-resident parent less than once a week.
  • Less than a twentieth of children have indirect contact less than once a week (4% for children in the resident parent sample and 3% of children in the non-resident parent sample).
  • 93% of resident parents are female and 89% of Non-Resident Parents (NRP) are male.
  • A quarter (24%) of children in the resident parent sample and 10% of children in the non-resident parent sample have no direct or indirect contact with their non-resident parent.

  Non-Resident Parental Contact Based on Data from the National Statistics Omnibus Survey for The Department for Constitutional Affairs, Alison Blackwell & Fiona Dawe, October 2003

  In the UK, currently at least 9% of separated parents now share the care of their children more or less equally  and over 71% of children have some degree of contact with both parents.

  Peacey & Hunt, I’m not saying it was easy.. Contact problems in separated families, Gingerbread, Jan 2009, from Kids in the Middle, Response to the Family Justice Review 2010, Draft 1.
  
  There is evidence that high father-involvement is associated with better outcomes for children , whether or not they are co-resident.

  Sarkadi et al, 2008; Flouri, 2005; Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2004, Jackson et al, 2010, from Kids in the Middle, Response to the Family Justice Review 2010, Draft 1.
  
  Demonstrated benefits include better educational achievement, positive peer/partner relationships, fewer behaviour problems, reduced criminality, substance misuse and teenage pregnancy, higher self-esteem etc.  Involved fathers can also ‘buffer’ children against negative circumstances, such as poverty or their mother’s depression  or mothers harsh parenting.

  Chang et al, 2007; Crockenberg & Leerkes, 2003, Jackson et al, 2010, from Kids in the Middle, Response to the Family Justice Review 2010, Draft 1.  
  
  Fathers provide mothers with important support, commonly enabling then to parent more positively.

  Gee & Rhodes, 2003; Krishnakumar & Black, 2003, from Kids in the Middle, Response to the Family Justice Review 2010, Draft 1. 
  

   

• Are involved fathers more likely to financially support their children?

  A US study comparing ‘joint custody’ and ‘noncustodial’ fathers indicated that the former paid more in child support than the latter (refuting a belief some espouse that shared parenting can be used as a bargaining counter to reduce the non-resident parent’s payments to the other parent).
  
  Differences Between Fathers with Joint Custody and Noncustodial Fathers, J. A. Arditti, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 62, pp186-195 (see especially p 194), 1992 
   

• What happens in other countries?

  Many countries around the world have shared parenting legislation. Australia is one of our favourite examples. Click here to download our note on the Australian research. 
  

• Do children value 'contact'?

   Most children:

  •    want and value contact;
  •    view the Non-Resident Parent (NRP) as an important figure who is still part of the family, and the loss of contact as painful;
  •    miss the NRP and many would like to see more of them;
  •    value the effort and commitment of their NRP in making a family life for them.
  •    And would like to be actively involved in maintaining contact.
  

  See Information About the Absent Parent as a Factor in the Well-Being of Children, Pressdee et al op cit, J Owusu-Bempah, International Social Work, Vol. 38, pp235-275, 1997, and New Childhoods? Children and Co-Parenting After Divorce, Dr Bren Neale, Professor Carol Smart, Dr Amanda Wade, 1999, available from http://www.hull.ac.uk/children5to16programme/briefings/smart.pdf

  “the majority of these children [from a survey of high conflict divorces] were eager to visit their non-custodial fathers and often wanted more time than the usual every-other-weekend visits.” (p 111)

  Nonresidential Parenting: New Vistas in Family Living, Depner, Charlene E.,  Bray, James H (eds), Newbury Park : Sage, c1993

   

  Losing regular contact with their fathers is in children's opinion the worst aspect of their parents' separation.
   

  Children's Perceptions of Their Parents' Divorce, Kurdek, L.A., & Siesky, A.E., Journal of divorce, Vol. 3, pp339-378, 1980

  A report by Grandparents Plus found that teenagers whose parents has separated valued the relationships with their grandparents so much that they would contact their grandparents without their parents’ knowledge if necessary.  They regarded it as their right to see their grandparents, rather than their grandparents’ right to see them.  But, significantly, they did not want grandparents in the court room and were clear that they wanted grandparental involvement but distinguished between that and additional grandparental rights.

  Buchanan, A. & Griggs, J.  My second mum and dad. Grandparents Plus, ESRC 2009.  From Kids in the Middle response to Family Justice Review 2010, Draft 1.
  

   

   

• Does shared parenting positively affect child outcomes?

  “Across the study-level effect sizes, joint-custody children scored significantly higher on adjustment measures than sole-custody children,”
  
  “Because joint physical and joint legal custody may differ greatly in terms of time spent with each parent (with only the former clearly involving substantial amounts of time spent living with each parent), separate study-level analyses were conducted to compare joint physical custody and joint legal custody groups to sole-custody groups. In both cases, the joint-custody groups were better adjusted.”
  
  “Amato and Gilbreth’s (1999) meta-analysis of non-resident father involvement showed that closeness to the father and authoritative parenting by the father were positively associated with behavioural adjustment, emotional adjustment, and school achievement. Joint-custody children showed better adjustment in parental relations and spent significant amounts of time with the father, allowing more opportunity for authoritative parenting. The findings for joint legal custody samples indicate that children do not actually need to be in joint physical custody to show better adjustment, but it is important to note that joint legal custody children typically spent a substantial amount of time with the father as well.”
  
  Child Adjustment in Joint-Custody Versus Sole-Custody Arrangements: A Meta-Analytic Review, Robert Bauserman, Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp91–102, 2002 

   “Children in separated families fare best when they have close contact with each of their parents and all the important adults in their lives, including grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and family friends. And co-parenting by both mother and father should be the norm, except when issues of safety are involved.”
  
  A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a
  Competitive Age, Richard Layard and Judy Dunn, Children’s Society, 2009
  
  “Qualities like stability and competency in children have to be nurtured carefully and patiently by active engaged parenting.” (p 9)
  
  For Better or For Worse: Divorce Reconsidered, Hetherington, E. Mavis and Kelly, John, New York, London : W.W. Norton, c2002.
  
  “the view is now widely held that frequency and regularity of father-child contact after separation is associated with children’s psychological well-being, unless abuse or psychopathology is present.”
  
  Children in Changing Families, Pryor, Jan. , Rodgers, Bryan (eds), Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, p 124, 2001

• Does time matter?

  The quality of contact is significant, as well as the quantity.
  
  Children's Perspectives on their Relationships with their Non-Resident Fathers: Influences, Outcomes and Implications, J Dunn, H Cheng, T O'Connor and L Bridges, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45(3), p 553, 2004; and S Gilmore Contact/Shared Residence and Child Well-Being: Research Evidence and its Implications for Legal Decision-Making, S Gilmore, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, Vol. 20, pp344-365, 2006 

  A 2 year study of 162 children of separated parents selected from a representative community sample in the UK, which sought to address ‘the unresolved issue of the links between relationship quality, child-father contact and children’s outcomes’ concluded that:
  

  More frequent and more regular contact (which included communication by telephone) was associated with closer, more intense relationships with non-resident fathers... and fewer adjustment problems in the children; That contact with non-resident fathers was associated with children’s well-being.

  Children’s Perspectives on their Relationships with their Non-Resident Fathers: Influences, Outcomes and Implications, J Dunn, H Cheng, T O'Connor and L Bridges, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol. 45(3), pp 553-566, 2004 
  
  
   

Outcomes of positive father involvement

• Do children benefit from having involved fathers after separation and divorce?

  “Not growing up in an intact two-parent family did not weaken the association between the father’s or mother’s involvement and educational outcomes.”
  
  “Further involvement independently and significantly predicted educational attainment by later adolescence.”
  
  Early Father's and Mother's Involvement and Later Educational Outcomes, Dr Eirini Flouri and Prof Ann Buchanan, British Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 75, pp 141-153, 2004
  
  “On average, children are less likely to fail at school or suffer depression the more they see their separated father”.
  
  A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age, Richard Layard and Judy Dunn, Children’s Society, 2009
  
  “The main cost of involvement is time”
  
   “With every social class those who receive a substantial amount of father involvement have GA scores above the mean of their class.” [GA= IQ measure]
  
  Why Do Some Dads Get More Involved than Others?, D Nettle, Journal of Evolution and Human Behaviour, Vol. 29, Issue 6, pp 416-423

  “...At some level relations are taken for granted and unexamined, perhaps because they are so much a part of the fabric of our emotional landscape. Yet for children they are a powerful and subtle source of identity. They offer unique perspectives on parents and on themselves, in ways that enhance an emerging sense of self within the web of family within which most children develop.”
  

  Children’s Contact with Relatives, J Pryor, in Children and Their Families: Contact, Rights, and Welfare, A Bainham, B Lindley, M Richards and L Trinder (eds), Hart Publishing, 2003

  Research into contact post-separation shows that contact can deliver a number of benefits, including the meeting of the child’s needs for:

  • Warmth, approval, feeling unique and special to a parent – ‘experiences that can be the foundation for healthy emotional growth and development’;
  • Extending experiences and developing (or maintaining) meaningful relationships;
  • Information and knowledge;
  • Repairing distorted relationships or perceptions

  Contact and Domestic Violence – The Experts Court Report, J Sturge and D Glaser, Family Law, Vol. 615, p 617, 2000 

  The relationship between father involvement and outcomes for UK children is demonstrated:
  

  • Father involvement established before the age of 7 is associated with good parent-child relationships in adolescence and also later satisfactory partnerships in adult life;
  • Children with involved fathers are less likely to be in trouble with the police;
  • Father involvement is strongly related to children’s later educational attainment.

   

   

  Various papers published by E Flouri & A Buchanan 2002-2004, with the use of data from the British National Child Development Study
  

  Positive father involvement at age 16 is negatively correlated with psychological distress at age 33 and the link is especially strong for daughters. Father involvement is especially important for the well-being of teenage boys who regularly experience bullying, or when mother involvement is low.  

  Fathering and Child Outcomes, Flouri, E., West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2005
  
  

   

   

• Are fathers just as important as mothers in a child's life?

  “Fathers are no less important than mothers in a child’s life. The closeness of fathers to their children influences the children’s later psychological well-being, even after allowing for the mother’s influence. If fathers are more closely involved with their children, other things being equal, children develop better friendships, more empathy, high self-esteem, better life satisfaction, and higher educational achievement, and they are less likely to become involved with crime or substance abuse.”

  A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age, Richard Layard and Judy Dunn, Children’s Society, 2009
  
  The closer children are to their father, regardless of the quality of the mother-child relationship, the happier, more satisfied, and less distressed they are.

  Father-Child Relations, Mother-Child Relations, and Offspring Psychological Well-being in Early Adulthood, P Amato, Journal of Marriage and the Family, 1994 
  

• Can fathers protect children from abuse?

  
  Contact has potential value in terms of developing the child’s sense of identity, preserving links with the wider family, and providing an additional source of support for children and even protection from abuse. In ordinary circumstances a parent with an established relationship with the child should not have to prove that contact is in the child’s best interests.
  
  Child Contact with Non-Resident Parents, J Hunt and C Roberts, University of Oxford, 2004 
   

Family life today

• Has much changed?

   “The context in which families live today in Britain is in many ways quite new, and this raises new challenges. Compared with a century ago, two changes stand out. Firstly, most women now work outside the home and have careers as well as being mothers. In Britain 70 per cent of mothers of 9 to 12-month-old babies now do some paid work. This compares with only 25 per cent twenty-five years ago – a massive change in our way of life…The second change is the rise in family break-up. Women’s new economic independence contributes to this rise…As a result of increased break-up, a third of our 16-year-olds now live apart from their biological father.”
  
  A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age, Richard Layard and Judy Dunn, Children’s Society, 2009 

   

  Children live in an increasing variety of family structures.

   

  Office for National Statistics, Social Trends No.38, page 22

  The proportion of children in Great Britain living in a two-parent family unit has remained steady since the late 1990s and was 76 per cent in Q2 2007, compared with more than 90 per cent in 1972.
  
  Office for National Statistics, Social Trends No.38, page 19

• How many parental couples separate a year?

  Of the 12 million children in the country, in the region of a quarter have had to endure the separation of their mother and father.

  HMG July 2004 Green Paper Parental Separation: Children’s Needs and Parents’ Responsibilities

   Between 150,000 and 200,000 parental couples separate each year. 

  HMG July 2004 Green Paper Parental Separation: Children’s Needs and Parents’ Responsibilities

  "Of dependent children, 92% lived in a couple relationship in 1972; by 2008 this had dropped to 77%. Much of this change can be explained in terms of lone parents. One in four dependent children lived in a lone-parent family in 2008, an increase from 1 in 14 in 1972."

  Office of National Statistics 2009, Percentage of Children Living in Different Family Types in eds Hunt, S (2009), Family Trends: British Families since the 1950's, Family and Parenting Institute.
  

• Has the role of the father changed much?

  British fathers now undertake approximately nearly half of all childcare; According to a 2007 EOC study, mothers recorded an average of 2 hours 32 minutes per day looking after their own children, compared with 2 hours 16 minutes by fathers.
   

  Completing the Revolution: The Leading Indicators, EOC, London, 2007

  The number of divorces in Great Britain more than doubled between 1958 and 1969, from around 24,000 to around 56,000. After 1969 divorce became legal in Northern Ireland and between 1970 and 1972, the number of divorces in the UK rose from 63,000 to 125,000.
   

  Office for National Statistics, Social Trends No.38, page 20

  94% of fathers-to-be chose to be present in the delivery room.
   

  Practical Parenting Magazine, Dorling Kindersley, and www.saga.co.uk

  British fathers: work the longest hours in the Europe Union (an average 48 hours a week for those with children under 11).
   

  Fathers and Fatherhood in Britain, Louie Burghes, Lynda Clarke and Natalie Cronin, Family Policy Studies Centre, 1997

  These statistics are cited from independent research, ranging from small qualitative studies to large-scale, representative surveys.
  

  • There was a 200 per cent increase in the time that fathers are actively engaging with children between 1974 and 2000.
  • Fathers’ interest and involvement in their children’s education and learning result in better educational outcomes.
  • Of teenage fathers, 22 per cent themselves had teenage mothers, compared with only 13 per cent who had children at a later age.
  • Lone fathers account for only about 10 per cent of lone parents and 2 per cent of all families with dependent children.
  • Lone fathers are more likely to have been married or widowed than lone mothers.
  • Children’s levels of contact with non-resident fathers are closely related to background characteristics such as socio-economic status, and life course decisions such a remarriage and the time since parental separation.
  • The proportion of fathers taking paternity leave exclusively was 50 per cent, and a further 30 per cent incorporate additional leave entitlement in 2006.

  Fathers’ Involvement in Family Life, Stephan A. Hunt, Family Trends, British families since the 1950s, 2009

  
  

   

   

Parental Conflict and the effect of separation on children

• Does parental conflict have an effect on children?

   “Parental conflict and separation can have a disastrous effect on children, even though some children survive unscathed”
  

  A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age, Richard Layard and Judy Dunn, Children’s Society, 2009 

  Children said they felt used (19 per cent), isolated (38 per cent) and alone (37 per cent). Many admitted they turned to drink and drugs, played truant from school or self-harmed. For 38 per cent of children the separation meant they never saw their father again.

  Mishcon De Reya Solicitors 2009

  Children who observed a lot of conflict between their parents are more likely to engage in high conflict relationships as adults. 

  Early Intervention and Prevention of Anxiety Disorders in Children: Results at 2-year Follow-up, Dadds, M.R., Holland, D., Barrett, P.M., Laurens, K., and Spence, S., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 67, pp145-150, 1999; Children’s Representations of Parent-Child Relations as Mediators Between Marital Conflict and Children’s Peer Relations, Du Rocher Schudlich, T., Shamir, H., and Cummings, E.M., Social Development, Vol. 13(2), pp171-192, 2004
  

  While many children are distressed and anxious around the time of separation, research shows that it is how people separate that makes the difference to children, and not simply that they separate .  It is the sustained conflict that is damaging to children, especially when they are directly involved in it.

  Parentline citing Pryor and Rodgers 2001, from Kids in The Middle, Response to Family Justice Review 2010, Draft 1.  
  
  We now know from a growing body of peer-reviewed research that children’s development is adversely affected – including academically – by ongoing inter-parental conflict, particularly where the focus of the arguments is the child themselves.

  Goeke-Morey, Cummings, Harold and Shelton 2002 , from Kids in The Middle, Response to Family Justice Review 2010, Draft 1.
   

   

• Is it better if parents can get along?

  
  Some of the emotions children feel on separation are “confusion, sadness and betrayal”. However, if parents get along, children are far less likely to feel this way.
   

  A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age, Richard Layard and Judy Dunn, Children’s Society, 2009

The effect of loss of contact with one parent after separation and divorce

• Do children really not see one parent after separation and divorce, even if it is safe for that child to do so?

  
   “…it is a real worry that in Britain around 28 per cent of all children whose parents have separated have no contact with their fathers three years after the separation.”

  A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age, Richard Layard and Judy Dunn, Children’s Society, 2009

  It is thought that 1 million children are unable to see their grandparents because families have either separated or lost touch.

  Grandparents Association estimate. http://www.grandparents-association.org.uk/help_manifesto.htm, from Kids in the Middle response to Family Justice Review 2010, Draft 1.
  
   

• Do children care?

  
  “Most children hate the loss of contact with their fathers and often experience substantial distress, anger or self-doubt as a result.”
   

  A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age, Richard Layard and Judy Dunn, Children’s Society, 2009

  
  

• Does it really matter?

  And when children do not see their fathers, or do not see them very much, they tend to demonise or idealise them (Kraemer, 2005; Gorrell Barnes et al, 1998) or blame themselves for their absence ( Pryor & Rodgers, 2001).  
  
  

  • “School readiness” in young children is associated with high levels of paternal sensitivity, over and above mothers’ sensitivity (Campbell & von Stauffenberg, 2008)
  • Fathers’ support for their children’s autonomy has been found, (controlling for a range of variables) to be significantly and uniquely associated with higher levels of reading and mathematics achievement among Grade 3 boys (NICHD, 2008)

  Losing regular contact with their fathers is in children's opinion the worst aspect of their parents' separation.
   

  Children’s Perceptions of their Parents’ Divorce, Kurdek, L.A., and Siesky, A.E, Journal of Divorce, Vol. 3, pp339-378, 1980

  96% of children include their non-resident fathers as part of their families.

  Remaking Families: Adaptation of Parents and Children to Divorce, Funder, K., Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies, 1996
  
  Lack of paternal care results in the several times higher rate of depressive symptoms in younger children.
  
  Father Involvement and Children's Functioning at Age 6 Years: a Multi-Sided Study, Dubowitz, H., Black, M. M., Cox, C. E., Kerr, M. A., Litrownik, A. J., Radhakrishna, A., English, D. J., Schneider, M. W., and Runyan, D. K., Child Maltreatment, Vol. 6(4), pp300-309, 2001
  
  Low father involvement with adolescents is associated with emotional over-control, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.
  
  Adolescent Depressive Disorder: a Population-Based Study of ICD-10 Symptoms, Patton, G. C., Coffey, C., Posterino, M., Carlin, J. B., Wolfe, R, The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry, Vol. 34(5), pp741-747, 2001
  
   

• Does the separation affect children?

  A child of separated parents stands a greater chance of negative outcomes than a child who has not experienced this, such as offending, running away from home, teenage pregnancy, entering adulthood unqualified, being unemployed, substance abuse, mental health problems, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and subsequent repercussions on future generations and relationships.
  
  Contact; The New Deal, P Pressdee, J Vater, F Judd QC, J Baker QC, Family Law, 2006
  

  Children who live apart from their fathers are more likely to suffer from health-related problems. Father absence is related to the following negative outcomes:

  • Almost twice the likelihood of infant mortality

  Infant Mortality Statistics from the 1998 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set, Matthews, T. J., Curtin, S. C., & MacDorman, M. F., National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48 (12). Hyattsville, MD: national Center for Health Statistics, 2000

  • Increased likelihood of accidents in toddlers (burn, bad fall)

  Differential Distribution of Children's Accidents, Injuries, and Illnesses Across Family Type, O’Connor, T., Davies, L.,Dunn, J., & Golding, J., Pediatrics, Vol. 106, November, 68, 2000

  • Increased likelihood of asthma

  Children’s Elevated Risk of Asthma in Unmarried Families. Underlying Structural and Behavioral Mechanisms, Working Paper, Harknett, K., Princeton, NJ: Center for Research on Child Well-being, pp19-2, 2005

  • Increased likelihood of obesity

  Influence of the Home Environment on the Development of Obesity in Children, Strauss, R.S., and Knight, J., Pediatrics, Vol. 103 (6), 1999
  
  

  • Other health related problems

  Horn, W. F., & Sylvester, T. (2002). Father Facts (4th ed.). National Fatherhood Initiative. Available from http://www.fatherhood.org/fatherfacts.htm
  
  

Key facts: what does the law say?

• UN Convention on Rights of the Child

  UN Convention on Rights of the Child
  
  Recognising that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding;
  
  Article 9
  
  3. States Parties shall respect the right of the child who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis, except if it is contrary to the child's best interests.
  
  Article 10
  
  2. A child whose parents reside in different States shall have the right to maintain on a regular basis, save in exceptional circumstances, personal relations and direct contact with both parents.
  
  Article 18
  
  1. States Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of the child. Parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child. The best interests of the child will be their basic concern.
  
  2. For the purpose of guaranteeing and promoting the rights set forth in the present Convention, States Parties shall render appropriate assistance to parents and legal guardians in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities and shall ensure the development of institutions, facilities and services for the care of children. 

• The Gender Equality Duty

  The Gender Equality Duty 2007; 1.20
  

  
  Men are also disadvantaged by workplace cultures that do not support their family or childcare responsibilities, by family services that assume they have little or no role in parenting, or by health services which do not recognise their different needs. Both sexes suffer from stereotyping of their roles and needs. The duty should help the public sector, and those working with it, to identify and respond to stereotyping, sex discrimination and sexism, resulting in improvements for all.
  The guidance quotes specific areas where improvement for fathers could indicate progress:
  
  • Fathers receive greater support for their childcare responsibilities from public services and employers.
  
  

• Every Parent Matters/ Every Child Matters

  Department for Education and Skills;

  Every Parent Matters 2007; 6.18

  Promoting contact between children and their separated parents
  
  Each year between 150,000 and 200,000 couples separate and many of these separations involve children. Where there is separation or divorce we want children to be able to continue to have meaningful and safe contact with both parents. A minority of separating couples (approx 10%) are unable to come to contact/residence arrangements amicably in the best interests of their children and turn to the family courts for help. Approximately 67,000 contact orders were made in England and Wales in 2004-05.
   

  Department for Education and Skills; Every Parent Matters 2007; 7.1

  Developing Parental Engagement

  We have strong evidence of the beneficial impact of both good parenting and parental engagement in public services on children’s outcomes. Public services in a range of areas need to improve how they work with parents.
  
  Engaging parents effectively means:
  • engaging both fathers and mothers;
  • enabling parents to access information so that they can exercise effective choice;
  • giving parents the means to influence the shape of services so that they meet their family’s needs;
  • practitioners providing services to the family seeking to work in equal partnership with parents to maximise the benefits to the children of the services received;
  • enabling parents to find and draw down additional information and help to deal with specific issues when they need it; and
  • ensuring opportunities for fathers and mothers to work in partnership with schools, taking account of the constraints on working parents.
   

  Department for Education and Skills; Every Child Matters 2003; 3.1

  Why parenting matters;

  The bond between the child and their parents is the most critical influence on a child’s life. Parenting has a strong impact on a child’s life. Parenting has a strong impact on a child’s education development, behaviour, and mental health.
   

  Department for Education and Skills; Every Child Matters 2003 3.3

  • Support programmes for fathers as well as mothers so that all children but especially those who are living apart from their fathers, develop positive relationships with both parents

  • Ensure better communication between parents and schools to help support children to learn. We need to look at opportunities for families, and especially fathers, to become more closely involved in school life through parents’ associations, as school governors, and as a result of home-school contracts