Most fathers maintain contact with non-resident children

A recent piece of research has uncovered some positive findings with regards to contact between fathers and their children who don’t live with them.

The study, by NatCen Social Research, Thomas Coram Research Unit and the University of East Anglia, found that the vast majority (87%) of fathers who don’t live with their children say that they continue to have contact with themn and close to half (49%) say that their children stay with them on a regular basis, on weekends and during school holidays.

However, the research also uncovered a number of factors that can have a negative impact on this level of contact, including situations where a father has other dependent children living with him -  either their own or their new partner’s.

The study found that 21% of fathers with a second or subsequent family say they have no contact with the children from their former relationship; and only 8% say they have contact almost every day.

This compares with 10% and 14% respectively for fathers who are not currently living in second families, and may suggest that as fathers go on to have a second family they can lose contact with children from previous relationships.

The report also shows that only 69% of fathers with ‘two families’ report having a close relationship with the children who do not live with them.  By contrast, 86% of the fathers who have not had a second family remain close to the children from their earlier relationship.

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