Care-time arrangements after the 2006 reforms: Implications for children and their parents

Abstract

This large-scale, national study of parents who had separated after the 2006 family law reforms were introduced suggests that traditional care-time arrangements, involving more nights with the mother than father, remain the most common some 15 months after separation. In fact, approximately 80% of the children spent 66-100% of nights with the mother, with one-third spending all nights with her. In interpreting the significance of these findings, it is important to note that most children in the study were less than 5 years old. Of the children who never stayed overnight with their father, two-thirds saw their father during the daytime and the other one-third did not see him at all, and of the three shared care-time arrangements examined- more nights with mother, equal care time, and more nights with father- the last of these was by far the least common. Equal care-time arrangements were most common for children aged 5-11 years and 12-14 years, followed by those aged 3-4 years, then children aged 15-17 years; that is, children under 3 years old were the least likely to experience such arrangements. Nevertheless, across all age groups, equal care time was considerably less common than some of the other circumstances, including those in which the child never saw his or her father. Fathers with shared care time (whether equal or unequal) were more likely than the mothers with these arrangements to maintain that their parenting arrangements were flexible, while, among other parents, this view was more likely to be held by those with the majority of care time than those with the minority of care time. Three sets of analysis were conducted regarding fathers' and mothers' views about the workability of arrangements for themselves, their child and the other parent. The first set focused on how well the arrangements were working for each party separately, while the second focused on how well they were working for all three parties taken together. The third set focused on the workability of arrangements for children of different ages. Here, the reports of respondents (fathers and mothers combined) with each care-time arrangement were compared, according to the age of their child. The first set of analysis showed that parents with the majority of care time were more likely than those with the minority of care time to believe that the arrangements were working well for them, with the greatest differences being apparent for those whose child never saw the father. Fathers with shared care time were more likely than their female counterparts to believe that their arrangements were working well for them, and a similar though less marked trend emerged in relation to views about how well the arrangements were working for the child. Among respondents who provided an assessment of the workability of arrangements for their child's other parent, those with the most care time were the least likely to see the arrangements as working well for the other parent. The second set of analysis showed that most fathers and mothers in all groups, except those whose child never saw one parent, believed that the arrangements were working for all three parties, with those with shared care time being the most likely to believe this. These views became less prevalent as care time was less equally shared. Finally, across all the age groups of children, most parents believed that their arrangements were working for their child. Few of the children under 3 years old spent more nights with the father than mother, and where these children experienced a shared care-time arrangement, they were more likely to spend more nights with the mother (i.e., 53-65% of nights with the mother and 35-47% with the father) than to have an equal care-time arrangement. Nevertheless, among parents of such young children with these two categories of shared care time, the vast majority said that their arrangements were working well for their child. Families with different care-time arrangements varied considerably across a range of circumstances. For example, there was a close link between post-separation care-time arrangements and respondents' reports about the other parent's level of involvement in the child's everyday activities prior to separation. From this perspective, postseparation care time increased with increases in preseparation involvement. While there were clear socio-demographic similarities between parents whose child never saw the father or saw him during the daytime only (e.g., they tended to be relatively young and were less likely than others to have been living with the child's other parent when the child was born), they differed on several dimensions. For example, those whose child never saw the father tended to live further away from the other parent and to have a more problematic relationship with this parent. Respondents with a shared care-time arrangement tended to have relatively high socio-economic status, and to live fairly close to the other parent. While most parents with shared care-time arrangements reported friendly or cooperative relationships in some areas, they were more inclined to report problematic family dynamics compared with parents whose child spent a minority of nights with the father or saw him during the daytime only (especially the latter group). For the most part, pre-separation experiences of violence and current safety concerns associated with ongoing contact with the other parent were more commonly reported by parents whose child never saw the father or had limited or no time with the mother than by other groups of parents. Although this is consistent with the aim of the family law system to protect children's wellbeing, there was also evidence that there were some children in shared care-time arrangements who had a family history entailing violence and a parent concerned about the child's safety, and who were exposed to dysfunctional inter-parental relationships. This finding is inconsistent with the aims of the reforms. Parents assessed their child's wellbeing across several dimensions, covering general health, learning or education, and social, emotional and behavioural adjustment. Assessments of the wellbeing of children in the largest group (those living with their mother for 66-99% of nights) were compared with those provided for children with other care-time arrangements. Here, the children who spent 53-100% of nights with the father were combined into a single group. Children with shared care-time arrangements appeared to fare as well as (or perhaps marginally better than) children who spent most nights with their mother, while children who never saw their father appeared to fare worse than this reference group. While a history of family violence and highly conflictual inter-parental relationships appeared to be quite damaging for children, there was no evidence to suggest that this negative effect was any greater for children with shared care time than for children with other care-time arrangements. It remains possible, however, that the measures adopted in this analysis were insufficiently sensitive to detect existing effects in these areas. Safety concerns relating to ongoing contact also appeared to be detrimental to children's wellbeing. Furthermore, this effect appeared to be more marked, according to mothers' reports, for children in shared care-time arrangements than for those who were in the care of their mother most of the time. These findings are consistent with those of Cashmore et al. (2010). Although caution needs to be exercised in inferring causal connections based on crosssectional data, the results are consistent with the notion that the circumstances that lead to mothers' safety concerns are more detrimental to children with shared care-time arrangements than to those who are in the care of the mother for most of the time. To date, shared care time appears to be mostly, but by no means entirely, adopted by families for whom such arrangements work well. A concern is that increasing proportions of separated parents for whom it will not work well may also adopt this approach. The extent to which shared care time has changed over the years will be examined in a forthcoming issue of Family Matters.