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

With the diffusion of marital instability also in Italy, the number of children who spend some of their childhood without one of their parent, usually the father, is not negligible even in this country. For these children, examining contact with their father after separation is worthwhile, since a good father-child interaction contributes to their well-being. In this paper we consider the frequency of child-father contact after separation for children aged 6-17 living with their mothers, with data from two rounds (2003 and 2009) of the Italian survey “Family and Social Subjects”. Multivariate analyses show a negative effect of mother’s repartnering in the frequency of father-child contact in 2009, and an unexpected weak positive effect in 2003. A negative effect of paternal repartnering is observed in 2003 and no significant effect in 2009.