The rush to research covid-19 risks compromising research integrity and impact

Much academic research is currently characterised by a rush to capture the effects of COVID-19. However, impact in the social sciences depends on researchers taking the time to look after themselves, exchange knowledge with others – within and across disciplines- and reflect on new data alongside existing knowledge. Tina Haux, author of Dimensions of Impact in the Social Sciences, considers whether the speed at which knowledge generation is being sought could bring risks for the feasibility and quality of social science research

The impact of separation on parenting confidence

In the context of high rates of parental separation and divorce, there has been extensive scholarly interest in exploring the consequences of separation for both children and parents. However, little is currently known about whether separation impacts mothers’ sense of their own efficacy as parents. In this chapter, we investigate whether mothers’ confidence in their parenting drops following separation, and if so, whether it recovers over time. Arguing that reduced confidence in their competence as parents may stem from the challenges of sole parenting, we explore whether greater involvement of fathers in parenting after separation lessens the impact of the breakup on mothers’ confidence. Using the Millennium Cohort Study, a large, nationally representative study of children born in the UK in 2000-2001, we analyse the experiences of around 12,000 mothers who were living with their child’s father when the baby was around nine months old. By tracking these mothers until their child is around seven years old, we show that those who separate experience a reduction in their parenting confidence relative to those who did not separate, and that this gap persists. Counter to our expectations, we find that greater paternal involvement post-separation does not mitigate these effects. We discuss these findings in the context of theories of self-efficacy and the stigmatisation of lone mothers in society

Staying involved? The relationship between pre-separation fathering and post-separation contact

Parental separations are on the rise, and nearly half of all children growing up in the UK today are not living with both biological parents by the time they reach adulthood. Using prospective analysis of a large UK longitudinal study, Tina Haux and Lucinda Platt ask: are fathers who stay in more frequent contact different from those who lose touch? They identify a modest association between pre-separation fathering and post-separation contact. But even for more involved fathers this declines over time

Family structure and poverty in the UK: an evidence and policy review

A report of research into links between family structure and poverty, conducted for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

What is shared care?

Shared care is becoming the most popular separation arrangement internationally. Yet, the evidence base on shared care remains thin in the UK with estimates of its prevalence varying between three and 17 per cent. Capturing a relatively new and evolving phenomenon such as shared care is a challenge for longitudinal surveys as much of their value is based on asking the same questions over time. This project explores how shared care is understood, negotiated and practiced by separated families, to assess the appropriateness of existing questions in Understanding Society in capturing the phenomenon, and to suggest changes where appropriate

Fathers’ Involvement with Their Children Before and After Separation

Changes in fathering over the last decades have led to substantially more involvement of fathers in their children’s upbringing. At the same time, high rates of parental separation and subsequent loss of contact fuel concern about separated fathers’ role in their children’s lives. Underlying such concern is the assumption that separation represents a discontinuity in fathers’ parenting. This paper investigates whether fathers’ pre- and post-separation paternal involvement is linked: are fathers with lower levels of contact after separation those who were less involved fathers when co-resident? To answer this question, we draw on a nationally representative UK longitudinal study of children born in 2000-2001 to interrogate the links between fathering before and after separation for 2,107 fathers, who separated from the child’s mother before the child was age 11. We show that fathers who were more involved parents prior to separation tend to have more frequent contact after separation, adjusting for other paternal and family characteristics. The size of this association between pre- and post-separation fathering is, however, modest; and even among more involved fathers, intensity of contact declines over time

The mental load in separated families

Objective: This paper asks how evolving contact and gendered working lives, gendered identities, and conflict and parental relationships influence cognitive labour in separated families. Background: The fact that the often-invisible work of planning, researching, and executing decisions concerning children and household maintenance is borne by women/mothers, receives growing research attention, yet, the bulk of this research focuses on the gendered division of the mental load in intact families. Given the high prevalence of separated families with high levels of father contact, more work is needed to understand how cognitive labour is divided by parents residing in separate households. Method: This paper draws on 31 semi-structured interviews of separated parents, including 7 former couples. Interviews were sampled from a nationally representative longitudinal survey, Understanding Society, professionally transcribed and thematically analysed with Nvivo. Results: Analysing the interviews reveals both continuity and change in the division of the mental load following separation. For some families, gendered identities and working lives continue to justify an unequal division of the mental load, even when children spend large amounts of time solely with fathers. In others, conflict can reduce communication between parents, either increasing fathers cognitive labour through parallel parenting or decreasing it when fathers are excluded from decision-making altogether. Finally, separation can present a turning point where working lives and identities are re-evaluated, and the mental load can be negotiated anew. Conclusion: We provide new evidence that the mental load remains gendered even among those practicing a relatively "modern" family form of shared care post-separation, while highlighting possibilities for variation and change

Activating lone parents: an evidence-based policy appraisal of welfare-to-work reform in Britain

The 2008 welfare reform introduced by the previous Labour government requires (most) lone parents with older children to be available for work. This article examines the potential effect of this reform on the employment rate of lone parents and whether the age of the youngest child is a good indicator of ‘ability to work’. The reform will not lead to the desired increase as the target group is too small and the levels of multiple disadvantages within the group too high. ‘Ability to work’ needs to be conceptualised more broadly if it is to mean ‘ability to get a job’

Exploring the concept of intensive parenting in a three-country study

There has been growing interest in the concept of intensive parenting in the literature in the recent decade. However this literature is mostly qualitative and based on Anglo-Saxon countries. This raises the question of how best to operationalize the concept in a wider cross-national setting