Are the kids alright? Essays on postdivorce residence arrangements and children's well-being

Abstract

This dissertation examines changes in postdivorce parenting over time and investigates the consequences of postdivorce residence arrangements for children’s well-being. It improves on earlier research in several ways. First, to understand changes in postdivorce parenting, the role of father involvement during marriage is studied. The results of this book show that in the last decades postdivorce parenting has changed towards father’s greater engagement in child care. This increase in seems to be the result of fathers’ greater care responsibilities during marriage. Second, the current dissertation contributes to thedebate on the risks and benefits of postdivorce residence arrangements for children by focusing on children’s social well-being, i.e., their relationship with family members and including shared residence in the range of studied arrangements, an increasingly popular custody arrangement among divorcing parents. Third, to gain insight in the association between residence arrangements and well-being, this book zooms in on the role of the parental relationship. The findings suggest that child well-being differs across residence arrangements (mother, father and shared residence) with children in shared residence experiencing higher levels of well-being. These differences in well-being are partly the result of the positive socio-demographic characteristics of the shared residence group. Moreover, the results underline the importance of the postdivorce parental relationship for understanding variations in child well-being across residence arrangements. A conflicting relationship between parents does not only decrease children’s well-being, but also enlarges the differences in child well-being between postdivorce residence arrangements.