The dynamics of shared care in the UK Stephen McKay Professor of Social Research School of Social Policy University of Birmingham, UK International Society for Child Indicators Conference 2011 Children’s Well-Being: The Research & Policy Challenges

Structure Background Cross-sectional estimates of how care is shared after relationships break down Longitudinal analysis of care arrangements Effects of care arrangements on child outcomes Work in progress – all suggestions welcome

UK (England & Wales) context #1 On separation: ‘legal custody’ of children, through parental responsibility, is usually shared/joint ‘physical custody’ [residence] and ‘access’ [contact] on separation is usually determined by the parents by agreement. Courts prefer not to make an order. courts may make orders, including ‘[shared] residence orders’ in disputed cases, applying test of ‘best interests of the child’ – Relating to residence and contact (‘physical custody’ and ‘access’) – Individual cases, not presumptions: e.g. ‘The Court of Appeal held that there was no presumption against contact simply because domestic violence was alleged or proved’. Re F (A Child) (Contact Order) [2001] 1 FCR 422

Not all are impressed …

UK context #2 Concerns that – Orders not ‘fair’ Biased towards mothers / resident parents Ignoring past division of responsibilities – Orders not met Hostile mothers preventing contact and going unpunished Uninvolved fathers not taking up contact Some discussion of a legal presumption of shared care as being in child’s best interests [Australia] – Are English courts moving in this direction in practice? Few large-scale studies, even fewer longitudinal in Britain (Amato and Gilbreth (1999) 'Nonresident Fathers and Children's Well-Being: A Meta-Analysis‘)

Early estimates of shared care Bradshaw & Millar: lone parents 1989Bradshaw, Stimson, Skinner & Williams: absent fathers 1996 Twice a week or more12 “Shared care”5 Once a week15 At least once a week47 Once a fortnight7At least once a fortnight 14 Once every three weeks2 At least once a month7 Once a month6 Less than once a month14Once or twice a year10 Unclear21-3 years8 More than 3 years10 Never43Not at all3 Sample size

More recent estimates BHPS 2002BHPS 2007U. Soc 2009 Arrangement ResidentAbsentResidentAbsent Shared care 50/ Almost everyday Several times a week About once a week Several times a month Once a month or less84665 A few times a year Never Sample size

Data Families and Children Study (FACS) ‘Rotating panel’, built from Child Benefit recipients Questions asked at child-level regarding contact with non-resident parent Same questions asked each year – hence may track over time at child level – Later waves are low-income and lone-parent biased, corrected by weighting

Arrangements: average ages of children (red line = avg age all children)

Few differences in incomes [of the resident family] by arrangement

Relationship between resident and non-resident parent

Overview of longitudinal data 23,500 children with average of 3.7 years observed [87,500 ‘observations’] – 13,500 some experience of being apart from parent (lone parents are over-sampled) with 27,000 observations Considerable change over time: – 9% see absent parent daily in any given year; 17% say this at least once during their survey involvement – 26% never see absent parent; 34% say this at least once

Annual changes in contact [row %] This year Previous year More frequentSameLess frequent At least once a day At least once a week At least once a fortnight At least once a month At least once a year Less often Never 1882-

Measures of child outcomes Parental assessments of school work, bullying, contact with school, police. For 3 years, child self- completion (if aged ): TV viewing, contact with friends, use of alcohol and drugs, parents setting limits, …

Who feels ‘extremely happy’ with: FamilyLife Intact families63%43% Separated and contact is: At least once a day 57%40% At least once a week 57%36% At least once a fortnight 54%33% At least once a month 49%35% At least once a year 49%30% Less often 55%27% Never 58%38%

Models of outcomes outcome it = x′ it B + cC it + rR it + v i + u it x characteristics of child, mother [father] C contact arrangements R parental relationship v i child effect (random intercept or fixed effect?)

Preliminary regression results (random intercept models; ‘random effects’) QuestionContact between child and non-resident parent Relationship between parents TV viewingns MathsnsSig EnglishSig ScienceSig School behaviourSig View of lifens View of familynsSig Sig means statistically significant at the 5% level.

Conclusions Arrangements for care after parental separation change over time, – on average becoming less frequent, but – some ‘no contact’ cases start to have contact Infrequent contact seemingly associated with worse outcomes than no contact, or frequent contact (multivariate) Some child outcomes related to both contact frequency and parental relationship, though latter is more common

Ends – questions?