Understanding Fathers’ Involvement Relative to the Other Parent After Parental Separation

ABSTRACT

Following parental separation, fathers’ greater or lesser parental involvement relative to the other parent may be differently accounted for by father, child, and coparental factors. A representative sample of 671 separated fathers completed questionnaires two and four years after separation. For fathers less involved than the other parent, a better coparenting relationship accounts for greater T1 involvement, but predicts a decrease in involvement by T2. For fathers more involved than the other parent, a better coparenting relationship accounts for more balanced involvement of both parents at T1 and T2. For all fathers, more custody time accounts for greater T1 and T2 involvement and greater psychological well-being accounts for greater T1 involvement. Implications for intervention and research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Divorce
• father-child relationship
• father involvement
• marital separation
• parental separation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This article is part of the first author’s doctoral thesis. We would like to thank the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et Culture [2020-B2Z-271420], the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [752-2019-2191] and the research partnership Séparation conjugale Recomposition familiale for their financial support.