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.