14 DAY TRIAL // When couples with children divorce, the situation can sometimes become dramatic for the young ones. They are constantly away from one of their parents, which they only get to see at intervals established by court or the parents themselves. A new study comes to show that, in the case of children living with their mothers, the youngsters receive even less visits from their natural fathers, if their other parent is engaged in another relationship. Apparently, fathers refuse to come over if they know their former spouse is seeing someone else, AlphaGalileo reports.
In charge of the new research were investigators from the Kutztown University, led by scientist Dr. Karen Benjamin Guzzo. According to her finds, a mother’s social decisions in terms of relationships have a direct effect on the amount of time the father spends with his child. This is especially true for children born outside marriages. They are regularly born to unstable couples, which very often break up in the first three years after their son or daughter was born. Other studies have shown that this is the most critical period for any couple, including married ones.
An additional factor that deters fathers from visiting their children in such circumstances is if the new man in the woman's life is living in the same household as her and the child, and is also actively involved in rising the little one. But the investigation revealed a peculiar phenomenon. As soon as the mother stopped dating her partner, a large number of fathers would resume their weekly or monthly visits to see their children almost immediately afterwards. Guzzo also says that she believes it to be best for fathers to continue visiting their children, even if more complicated situations arise from this.
The research focuses on a time frame between 1998 and 2000, and looks at records belonging to over 5,000 children born in large cities in the United States. It encompasses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which was a nationally representative longitudinal study that took place in this time frame. The main focus of the investigation is to assess the impact of decisions both parents make when it comes to spending time with their children. However, the researcher notes, these things need to be established by both members of the couple, one of them cannot operate in a so-called “vacuum.”