Who are Non-Resident Fathers?: A British Socio-Demographic Profile

Abstract

Despite international growth of, and policy interest in, divorce and separation since the 1970s, there is still surprisingly little known about non-residential fatherhood. This paper presents a ‘father-centric’ analysis and provides one of the first profiles of non-residential fatherhood in early millennium UK. Using data from Understanding Society Wave 1, a nationally representative survey of over 30,000 households in the UK, we found 1,070 men self-identifying as having a non-resident child under 16 years old (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk). We estimate a prevalence of 5 per cent of British men having a non-resident dependent child. Through latent class analysis, four distinct groups of non-resident fathers are identified: ‘Engaged’ fathers, ‘Less Engaged’ fathers, ‘Disengaged’ fathers and ‘Distance’ fathers. Our analysis finds that non-resident fathers form a heterogeneous group in terms of their socio-demographic profile and family behaviour. It is recommended that legislation and policy concerning fathers in post-separation families are sensitive to variation as well as commonality in socio-economic conditions and family lives and situations

Non-residential fatherhood in Canada

“…In particular, the current study found that nonresidential fathers had attained lower levels of education, reported less income, and were more likely to be outside a marital union than were co-residential fathers. Similar associations have been reported in the U.S. (Carlson et al 2017;Jones and Mosher 2013;Livingston and Parker 2011) and in the U.K. (Dermott 2016;Kiernan 2006;Poole et al 2016). This is the first study, however, to detect these associations in the Canadian population.…”

“…The research suggests that nonresidential fathers have, on average, less education and report lower income than fathers who reside with their children (Carlson et al 2017;Dermott 2016;Jones and Mosher 2013;Livingston and Parker 2011). Nonresidential fathers also tend to be younger on average and less likely to be living with a partner than residential fathers (Kiernan 2006;Poole et al 2016). Others have found that men who became fathers in their teenage years were less likely to share a residence with their offspring than men who became fathers at a later age (Mollborn and Lovegrove 2011).…”

“…There is unevenness, for example, in what constitutes a dependent child, with researchers employing different criteria and imposing different age limits. In the U.K., where the rate of nonresidential fatherhood is estimated to be 16.7 per cent (Poole et al 2016), dependent children are restricted to those under the age of 16. In Australia, the age of dependent children is limited to those under the age of 18, but the prevalence of nonresidential fatherhood is also far lower, at approximately 8.4 per cent (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006).…”

Gender Gap in Repartnering: The Role of Parental Status and Custodial Arrangements

“…In Britain, where legislation encourages separated or divorced parents to negotiate children's arrangements through private agreements, mothers generally retain physical custody of the children (Blackwell & Dawe, ; Hunt & Roberts, ), whereas fathers are more likely to commit to temporary stays and financial help (Blackwell & Dawe, ; Harding & Newnham, ; Trinder, ). Similar numbers of fathers, ranging from 9% to 12%, are involved in children's shared (Trinder, ) and exclusive custody (Blackwell & Dawe, ; Peacey & Hunt, ), whereas around 10% of fathers, according to recent estimates (Poole, Speight, O'Brien, Connolly, & Aldrich, ), lose touch with their children altogether (as opposed to roughly 40% in the 1980s; Bradshaw & Miller, ). Hence, in Britain, a substantial proportion of adults at risk of entering a new coresidential union have children, either living with them or tied to them emotionally and financially, with the caretaking burden falling disproportionately on women.…”

Shared Care After Separation in the United Kingdom: Limited Data, Limited Practice?

“…Policy makers across the political spectrum echoed wider concerns about children's loss of contact with fathers post-separation and the social, moral, and particularly financial implications of the absent father and increasing numbers of lone-parent families. According to one frequently quoted figure, 1 in 5 children in the United Kingdom lose contact with their fathers entirely 2 years after separation (Lader, 2008; see also Poole, Speight, O'Brien, Connolly, & Aldrich, 2016).…”