文档介绍：Absent Fathers?
One of the consequences of the changes that have been taking place in
family form in recent decades is that non-resident fathers are now very
prevalent. As many as one man in seven between the ages of 16 and 65 is a
non-resident father and many others will have experienced living apart
from their children. Media and political discourse depict non-resident
fathers as feckless ‘Deadbeat Dads’, but Absent Fathers? paints a pervasive
picture of men still struggling to be fathers of non-resident children.
Absent Fathers? is based on a national survey of over 600 non-resident
fathers in Britain as well as two in-depth studies using qualitative
interviews. It explores how men e non-resident fathers and how
they feel about it. It then describes their present circumstances and those
of their children, and their employment, e and housing
circumstances.
More fathers than expected want to have contact and fulfil their
parental obligations, social, emotional and financial, but one is
unsatisfactory without the others. Absent Fathers? suggests that policy
makers seeking to enforce financial obligations need to recognise this and
the emotional and moral turmoil that follows family separations,
cohabitation breakdown or non-marital births.
Jonathan Bradshaw is Professor of Social Policy; Christine Skinner is a
Research Student; Julie Williams is a Research Fellow and they are all at
the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York. The late Carol
Stimson was a Research Fellow, also at the University of York.
Contents
List of figures and tables ix
Preface xv
Acknowledgements xvii
1 Introduction 1
2 Methods of collecting the data 9
3 The characteristics of non-resident fathers 23
4 Employment and e 50
5 Housing 70
6 Contact between non-resident fathers and
their children 80
7 The fluidity of contact 99
8 Child support: Who pays? 124
9 The level of financial support 146
10 The Child Support Agency 1