Study Shows NC Dads and Moms Equally Uninvolved in Kids’ Lives
That the majority of nonresident parents have either no
contact with their child or contact based on leisure activities implies that all nonresident parents probably face emotional issues and practical barriers that make day-to-day types of involvement difficult to maintain.
One of the studies linked to on the National Responsible Fathers Clearinghouse site is entitled "Disneyland Dads, Disneyland Moms? How Nonresident Parents Spend Time with Absent Children." It's by Professor Susan D. Stewart who was at Bowling Green State University in 1999 when the article was published in the Journal of Family Issues. It's the type of work that should have enormous implications for family law and policy.
The study inquires into how noncustodial parents spend their time with their children. More specifically, do noncustodial mothers do different types of activities when they "have the kids" than do noncustodial fathers? If the answer is "yes," then there may be a sex difference in absent parent behavior. If the answer is "no," then that "may indicate that visitation patterns may be more a reflection of the nonresidential role rather than the nonresident parent’s gender."
Using data from the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households, Stewart found that indeed there was essentially no difference between noncustodial fathers' behavior toward their children and that of noncustodial mothers. Specifically, Stewart divided up activities done with children into (a) no activities at all, i.e. the parent hadn't seen the child in the past year, (b) leisure activities only and (c) mixed leisure and other activities such as school. (No parent did exclusively school activities with a child.)
Her findings are remarkable. Thirty percent of noncustodial parents had not been with their children in the previous year. Forty-one percent did only leisure activities and the remaining 29% did a mixture. On each of those measures, differences in percentages for fathers and mothers were reported to be statistically insignificant. (The similarity in behavior of noncustodial mothers and fathers is corroborated by other studies Stewart cites.) In short, a hefty 71% of all noncustodial parents had either no "face time" with their children at all, or were "Disneyland" parents.
As every parent knows, doing exclusively leisure activities (going to the zoo, the pizza parlor and then renting a movie to watch at home) bears little relationship to real day-to-day parenting. The leisure time parent is more like a peer than a parent. So what exactly do kids get out of that type of parental relationship? Given what we know about the children of divorce, the answer seems to be "not much."
We have a system of post-divorce child custody that tends to establish one parent as the primary parent and the other as secondary. Stewart's findings show that 'secondary' is exactly how they see themselves, whether they're mothers or fathers. And that system, again as Stewart's findings show, tends to result in children with one parent, not two, since even a nonresident parent with access tends to not really behave in a parental role.
Like so much other social science, Stewart's study argues powerfully for a change in parent-child relationships post divorce. It's another body of information that state legislatures and family courts should know, but apparently don't.
Unfortunately Stewart's study is buried in the archives of the Journal of Family Issues and can't be linked to. She was kind enough to send me a copy, for which I effusively thank her.
|
| More from Robert Franklin, Esq.
Stumble It!
