COVID-19: has the pandemic affected relationships between children and their non-resident parents?

Caroline Bryson and Stephen McKay

Published 10 September 2020

The well-being and outcomes of children living in separated families are associated with the quality of their relationship with their non-resident parent, and child maintenance provided by that parent. It is therefore important to understand how COVID-19 has affected these. While the Understanding Society COVID-19 survey suggests a strong degree of stability in many children’s relationships with their non-resident parent, those relationships most at risk (of becoming less close or having less contact) during the pandemic are those which were of poorer quality beforehand. Child maintenance is most likely to have reduced during the pandemic where children had less contact beforehand.