New research on contact

Researchers from Gingerbread and the University of Oxford have been looking at how families manage the arrangements for children to spend time with their non-resident parents, and the kinds of difficulties which families encounter. 

We carried out a large national survey of over 550 resident and non-resident parents in the UK to find out what arrangements families make, how these change, and the problems which can affect children's contact with their non-resident parent. We also carried out in-depth interviews with parents and children to find out more about how problems are managed and what effect they have on children.

The research has produced two reports, both by Victoria Peacey (Gingerbread) and Joan Hunt (University of Oxford). 'Together', our magazine for single parents has a short article about the contact research.

Gingerbread held a seminar on 16th March 2009 to discuss the research: read a summary of the seminar and discussion.

The research reports

This report summarises the findings of the national survey (presented in more detail in Problematic contact after separation and divorce? below). It also reports on the findings from in-depth 'qualitative' interviews with a group of parents who had experienced problems with contact but not used the family courts to resolve disputes, and includes interviews with children (in a few cases the children's parents had used the courts).

The in-depth interviews discuss how decisions about contact are arrived at, and parents' and children's satisfaction with the arrangements. We examine attitudes to contact and look in detail at the problems parents and children have experienced with contact; including welfare and safety concerns, the role of money, the influence of parents' new partners, and interrupted contact. We report parents' and children's experience of services and their suggestions for what would have helped and pass on their advice to other families experiencing difficulties. Finally, we make suggestions and recommendations for services and policy.

Read our press release for this report, or read parents' and children's advice to other families experiencing problems.

This report focuses on the findings of the large national survey, including: patterns of contact, factors associated with contact, parental satisfaction with contact, how decisions are made, experience of stopped contact, and problems which have and have not affected contact. The data presented here is entirely quantitative and the report does not include information from the in-depth 'qualitative' interviews.

Gingerbread would like to thank the Nuffield Foundation for funding this work.