Non-resident parent-child contact after marital dissolution and parental repartnering. Evidence from Italy

Silvia Meggiolaro, Università di Padova
Fausta Ongaro, Università di Padova

With the diffusion of marital instability, the number of children who spend some of their childhood without one of their parent has become not negligible even in Italy. Children usually live with their mothers after their parents’ separation; however, the proportion of separated fathers living with their children is not irrelevant. For all these children, examining contact with their non-resident parent after separation is worthwhile, since a good parent-child interaction contributes to their well-being. In this paper we consider the frequency of contact between children and their non-resident parent after separation. In particular, we focus on children aged 0-17 living with only one biological parent, using data from two rounds of the Italian survey “Family and Social Subjects”. The aim is twofold: a) to analyze the impact of parental union biography (defined by both resident and non-resident parents’ repartnering) in non-resident parent’s contact with their children; b) to investigate whether these effects are differentiated according to the sex of non-resident parent. Results of multivariate analyses show that the repartnering of parents reduce the non-resident parent-child contact only in the case of non-resident father.