Geographical distance between child and parent after a union dissolution in Sweden, 1974–2011

Abstract

BACKGROUNDDivorce is associated with a weakened relationship between the child and the nonresident parent, usually the father. This loss of contact is likely to be even further exacerbated if this parent lives at a substantial distance from the child. OBJECTIVEThis paper analyzes how the distance between children and nonresident parents, the year after a parental separation, has changed during a 40-year period in Sweden, and whether this is related to changes in child custody policies. METHODSWe use Swedish population register data that includes exact geographical coordinates for children and their nonresident parents in the year after separation. We analyze how average distance and the likelihood of living very close to, or very far from, a nonresident parent has changed over this period, using OLS and logistic regression models. RESULTSResults show a gradual decrease in the distance between children and nonresident parents from the 1970s until the early 1990s, after which the trend stalled at a low level. In 2011, 50% of all children lived within 2 kilometers of their nonresident parent. We find no evidence of direct policy effects, indicated by any sudden changes in distance after the introduction of a new custody policy. High-income parents have changed their postdivorce residential patterns at a faster pace than low-income parents.

Trends in distance between non-resident parents and minor children following separation: Analysis of the Belgian case, 1992–2018

“…Their results showed a gradual decrease in distances between children and non-resident parents from the 1970s to the early 1990s, after which the trend stalled at a low level (approximately 25 km) for fathers while further slightly decreasing for mothers, especially in late 2000s (to 19 km). Furthermore, Turunen et al (2020) do not find a direct effect of family policies on child-non-resident-parent distance. However, it remains unclear whether these trends are specific to the Swedish national context or whether similar findings would be observed in different national contexts.…”

“…Nevertheless, these studies did not focus on recently separated parents but rather on the living arrangements of all children with a non-resident parent, which masks the development of trends across separation cohorts. Turunen et al (2020) extended the previous research by studying geographical distances between non-resident parents and their children in the year immediately following the parental break-up, whether from marriage or non-marital cohabitation, for separation cohorts 1974 to 2011. Their results showed a gradual decrease in distances between children and non-resident parents from the 1970s to the early 1990s, after which the trend stalled at a low level (approximately 25 km) for fathers while further slightly decreasing for mothers, especially in late 2000s (to 19 km).…”

“…In line with this, the average distance between a non-resident parent and a child is smaller if the non-resident parent is a mother (Dommermuth, 2016;Stjernström & Strömgren, 2012; M. J. . In Sweden, non-resident mothers lived on average farther away than non-resident fathers during the 1970s, whereas in the late 2000s it was the reverse (Turunen et al, 2020).…”

“…In Norway, 62% of non-resident separated parents lived within a 10 km radius of their child in 2012 (median 3.5 km for non-resident mothers and 5.4 km for non-resident fathers) (Dommermuth, 2016). In Sweden, about half of the non-resident parents separated in 2011 lived within 2 km of their children in the year after the separation (average distance 19 km for mothers and 25 km for fathers) (Turunen et al, 2020). Following the trends in distances over separation cohorts, Turunen et al (2020) document for Sweden that the distance between child and non-resident parent decreased overall from the 1970s to the early 1990s, then stagnated from the mid-1990s until the end of their observation period in 2011.…”

“…The analysis is based on Belgian register-based data from 1992 to 2018. Compared to the Swedish study (Turunen et al, 2020), we capture more recent developments by extending the observation window to 2018. At the same time, the study designs are largely comparable, allowing us, to a certain extent, to assess similarities and dissimilarities in the results and comment on which trends are country-specific and which are potentially more general.…”