Who are non-resident fathers?: A British socio-demographic profile

Poole, Eloise, Speight, Svetlana, O'Brien, Margaret, Connolly, Sara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6714-3493 and Aldrich, Matthew (2016) Who are non-resident fathers?: A British socio-demographic profile. Journal of Social Policy, 45 (2). pp. 223-250. ISSN 0047-2794

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Title of article changed after acceptance; original working title "Non-resident fathers and their involvement with their children"
Uncontrolled Keywords:	contact,children,fathers,involvement,non-resident,separation
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Employment Systems and Institutions Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Research on Children and Families
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	11 Mar 2016 13:00
Last Modified:	14 Jun 2023 12:15
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57433
DOI:	10.1017/S0047279415000653

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