Children's Contact with Absent Parents

Untraditional caring arrangements among parents living apart

“…The children themselves may also prefer to spend more time with their father when the mother has settled with a new partner. However, studies investigating the amount of contact between non-resident fathers and children suggest that the mother's re-partnering is linked to less contact between biological fathers and children (Seltzer 1991;Seltzer and Bianchi 1988;Juby, Billette, Laplante and Bourdais 2007). The father may feel that he is less needed when the child has a stepfather, or that his own role is less clear, but other mechanisms may also be at play.…”

“…Attention has mainly been given to married and cohabiting fathers, but with rising divorce rates in recent decades there is also considerable focus on the child-care practices and economic contributions of non-resident fathers (for instance, Seltzer and Bianchi 1988;Stephens 1996;Manning and Smock 1999;Manning, Steward and Smock 2003;Cashmore, Parkinson, and Taylor 2008;Amato, Meyers and Emery 2009). While most children still remain in the physical custody of their mothers when parents break up, several countries have recently witnessed a slight increase in shared residence for children (Smyth and Moloney 2008;Lundström 2009;Fehlberg et al 2011), which is often linked to more equal parenting roles when parents live together (Smyth, Qu and Weston 2004).…”

Socioemotional Development in Changing Families

“…Several early studies have indicated that adolescents with stepfathers tend to have less involvement with their nonresident fathers (Furstenberg, Nord, Peterson, & Zill, 1983;Seltzer & Bianchi, 1988). However, using longitudinal data from the Add Health study, King (2009) found that the entry of stepfathers made little difference to children's closeness to, or contact with, their nonresident biological fathers, and that the quality of adolescents' relationships with their stepfathers was independent of the quality of their relationships with nonresident fathers.…”

Predictors of father involvement : the role of early life events and stressors.

“…This negative image of Black fathers has seeped into the nation's conscience, even to the extent of shaping social policy on public assistance and associated issues (Smith et al, 2005). Some quantitative studies certainly imply that many young Black fathers has rarely involved in their children's lives than White fathers (Isaacs & Leon 1988;Seltzer & Bianchi, 1988). African American fathers pay less child support, visit less, and are less engaged with their children compared to White fathers (King, Harris, & Heard, 2004).…”

“…Ishii-Kuntz (I994) reported that the time American fathers spent with their adolescents decreased to 0.5 to 1 hour per day. Fathers are more likely to interact with younger children because these children are perceived as more responsive (Guidubaldi & Perry, 1985;Seltzer & Bianchi, 1988). However, Lamb (2000) suggested that fathers spend more time with older children relative to younger children.…”