Parenting and post-separation contact: what are the links?

Tina Haux, Lucinda Platt and Rachel Rosenberg

Published 12 June 2015

High rates of parental separation and the extent to which non-resident fathers lose contact with their child have led to concerns about the involvement of fathers in their children’s lives. In this paper, we draw on a nationally representative study of children born in 2000-2001 in the UK to provide an original analysis of the relationship between pre-separation fathering and post-separation contact. We provide new insights into the drivers of post-separation contact and the extent to which such post-separation contact represents a continuation of pre-separation fathering practices. We find that fathers who were more active parents prior to separation tend to have more frequent contact after separation. Nevertheless there is still a tendency, even among more involved fathers, to reduce or lose contact over time.