Posibilidad de contratación de esquiroles o reemplazantes

Shared care arrangements are fairly uncommon among children after parental separation, but appear to have become more prevalent in the last decade. Analysis of the HILDA data suggests that a tenth or more separated parents and their children had a shared care or near shared care arrangement at one time or another between 2001 and 2007. Shared care is more commonly experienced by children of primary-school or early teen ages than by very young children and older teenagers.

Much of the analysis in this chapter was based on the Caring for Children after Parental Separation survey (CFC) (2003), the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) Survey (2001-2007) and the Growing Up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australia Children (2004 and 2006). Due to the small number of cases involving shared care (entailing the child spending 35–65% of nights with each parent), attention was directed to parents whose child had shared or near shared care (where the child spent 29–71% of nights with each parent) and those whose child spent most or all nights with the mother.

The results suggest that the parents of children with shared or near shared care are more inclined than other parents to live fairly close to each other. The demographic and socio- economic characteristics of these parents also differed from parents in other caring configurations in a number of ways. In particular, parents of children in shared or near shared care tended to have higher educational attainment and higher incomes than the other parents. The comparison of demographics showed that, compared with parents whose child had limited or no time with the father (0–13% of nights), those whose child spent a ―moderate‖ time with their father (14–28% of nights per year) and those whose child had shared or near

22 _{These results are based on the LSSF W1 2008. Child wellbeing measures included: ratings of health;}

learning skills, peer relationships, and overall progress compared with age-related peers; conduct problems; and emotional problems. There was an insufficient number of cases with shared care involving more nights with the father than mother to assess the relationship between the child‘s wellbeing and this type of arrangement, net of other factors in the model. The other factors that were taken into account were: the child‘s age and sex, the responding parent‘s age; educational attainment, employment status, relationship status at separation; Indigenous status; whether born overseas, whether living with a partner, and whether, according to this parent, there had been any mental health problems or substance misuse issues prior to separation. Across all care arrangements, children appeared to fare less well where there had been a history of family violence, where parents expressed ongoing safety concerns for themselves or their child relating to contact with the other parent, and where they reported a highly conflictual or fearful inter-parental relationship. However, where mothers‘ expressed safety concerns, the children in shared care arrangements appeared to fare less well (based on mothers‘ assessments of child wellbeing) than those who spent most nights with their mothers.

shared care arrangements were more likely to have been previously been married to each other and to have lived together for a relatively long time. These results may reflect the impact of fathers‘ pre-separation opportunities for bonding with the child: the greater these opportunities, the more likely the fathers may have been to care for their child for a substantial number of nights.

An important factor in explaining the likelihood of shared care or near shared care appears to be the recency of the parental separation. The analysis of transitions in care arrangements showed that children of recently separated parents were more likely to be in shared or near shared care, compared with children whose parents had separated some time ago. Over a period of two years, some children moved into and some out of shared care. However, no clear picture emerged regarding the nature of factors that might lead to such transitions. Most shared or near shared care arrangements appeared to be the result of negotiation between parents themselves and a small minority indicated that their arrangement was imposed by a court order. Parents with shared or near shared care were more likely than those whose child had limited or moderate time with the father to have developed their arrangements between themselves.

Compared to those with other care arrangements, the parents with shared care or near shared care appeared to engage in higher levels of cooperative parenting, although in a substantial proportion of these families, disharmony in inter-parental relationships and in child-related decision-making was apparent.

Most fathers and mothers with shared or near shared care arrangements indicated that their care arrangements were flexible, and most believed that their arrangements worked well for father, mother and child (taken separately). Nevertheless, a minority of parents with shared or near shared care (about 10% of fathers and mothers) considered their arrangements did not work well for their child.

At age 6–7 years, there was considerable variation in how well children in LSAC were faring within the different care groups in terms their social-emotional development and cognitive development (as measured by a test of language skills). Their developmental progress in these areas held only a weak relationship with their care arrangements. Whether this was viewed as a simple comparison of outcomes across the groups, or entailed multivariate analysis to take account of other differences in families, children‘s developmental progress rarely varied significantly according to their care arrangements. In particular, there was no evidence that being in shared or near shared care, as opposed to having slightly lower levels of contact (moderate contact), resulted in poorer outcomes for children. However, when the data for the children in the two LSAC cohorts when aged 4–5 years were combined, those with shared or near shared care appeared to be progressing as well as, if not better than, those who stayed with their father less often or not at all.

The bulk of evidence based on these results and those of the large-scale study of separated families conducted by AIFS (Kaspiew et al., 2009) suggest that children with shared care are faring at least as well as, if not better than, children with other care arrangements. However, it is worth noting that the Kaspiew et al. (2009) study suggests that children with shared care fare less well than those with other care arrangements where mothers‘ hold safety concerns for themselves or their child relating to ongoing contact with the child‘s father.

4 Analysis of the Parents’ Survey

This section outlines the results of the Parents‘ Survey and the follow-up interviews with 40 parents. It examines the incidence of shared care arrangements among the parents who responded to the survey, the demographic characteristics of parents and children by the type of child care arrangement that they are currently involved in, and information about how parenting arrangements are reached. It also examines parents‘ views about these arrangements and the factors that predict how well parents believe these arrangements work for their children and how satisfied they are with them. Outcomes such as how well parents perceive their child to be doing within those arrangements may be a feature of the arrangement itself, the degree of conflict they have with their former partner and/or the practical ease of the arrangements. It may also be a function of the parents‘ background, including their educational and occupational background and their gender.

As outlined earlier in the methodology section (2.1), the parents came from several target groups: those who used private family law solicitors or legal aid, and parents registered with the Child Support Agency (CSA).

The majority of the total sample of 1,028 parents (859, 84%) was recruited through the Child Support Agency. Just under half of these parents (440, 43%) were in shared care through the period of mid 2007-to mid 2008 and about a quarter (271, 26%) had children who had been in shared care prior to mid-2007 (―used to be in shared care). The remainder of the CSA registered parents were not in shared care at the time of the sample selection. In addition to the CSA samples, almost a fifth of the parent respondents (169, 16%) were recruited through solicitors.

The 40 parents who were interviewed were selected from those who indicated on the survey that they were willing to be interviewed. The aim was to have a mix of mothers and fathers mostly in shared care or previously with shared care arrangements from a range of socio- economic and location backgrounds and who were satisfied or dissatisfied with their arrangements.