Post-separation patterns of parenting in Australia: who opts for which patterns and why?

Despite widespread interest in patterns of parenting after separation in Australia, the gaps in our knowledge remain large and fundamental. Most studies, including those overseas, have taken a quantitative tack, measuring the frequency and overall amount of face-to-face contact between children and non-resident parents (mostly fathers). But obviously there is more to parent-child contact than just time. The nature and quality of the interaction are also important - perhaps even more so. Recently there has been a push towards recognising and describing both qualitative and quantitative differences in the many ways that parental sharing of time with children can occur after divorce. This thesis attempts to identify and explore some of these differences by comparing five different patterns of care: (i) 50/50 shared care, (ii) little or no contact, (iii) holiday-only contact, (iv) daytime-only contact, and (v) 'standard' contact (thought to occur every-other-weekend and half of each school holidays). A representative snapshot of parent-child contact schedules after separation is presented to provide some of the detail of arrangements within this typology. Two (complementary) types of data are used: qualitative data from a series of focus groups with separated parents, and quantitative data from three large representative samples of separated/divorced parents in Australia. Joining the dots between the various pieces of data, there is much to suggest that family dynamics in tandem with demographic factors temper the form that parent-child contact takes, with different combinations of factors clearly linked to qualitatively different patterns of postseparation parenting. While separating parents need to be encouraged to think more laterally about what arrangements might work best for their children and themselves, the data presented suggest that some parents in Australia are already being very creative and there is much diversity of arrangements. The central argument running through this dissertation is that arrangements that allow children to experience fluid, meaningful time with each parent are critical for children's and parents' wellbeing. The ideas and data presented here - especially some of the more creative timesharing schedules developed by parents - are likely to be a useful resource for separated parents, and the family law professionals they approach for assistance, to reflect on when developing or refining parenting arrangements after divorce.