Who Do Minors Live with? Cohabitation with Minor Children and Their Father‘s Partnership Context

Isabella Buber-Ennser , Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital
Claudia Herbst, Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Parental separation constitutes a profound disruption with long-lasting implications for the living arrangements of minor children. Active parental involvement is crucial for children’s psychological and social development. Flexible post-separation care arrangements such as co-parenting, including shared parenting arrangements, are increasingly important for maintaining strong bonds with both parents and supporting children’s well-being. This study focuses on current living arrangements of minor children with separated parents. We examine how often minor children regularly stay with their non-residential parents and how parental living situations and socio-demographic characteristics influence these arrangements. Using data from the second round of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS-II), we use descriptive analyses to map family forms and caregiving patterns across Europe and beyond. Furthermore, we conduct multivariate logistic regressions to identify key determinants of frequent, infrequent or absent co-residence with mothers and fathers. The analytical sample includes 8,141 respondents aged 18-50 years who report at least one minor child with a previous partner. Data include 16 countries in Europe and beyond. Initial evidence for Austria suggests that among women and men with minors from previous relationships, the majority of mothers answer that their children always live with them. Contrary, substantially fewer fathers report that their children live with them all the time. Whether children live with the father at least occasionally also depends strongly on the father’s partnership context: if the father lives with a new partner, children live with him more often - at least from time to time.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 58. Single Parenthood and Complex Partnership Contexts