Trends in Distance Between Non-resident Parents and Minor Children Following Separation: Analysis of the Belgian Case, 1992–2018

Abstract

Geographic distance between a child and their non-resident parent is a key aspect of the reorganization of the family following parental separation. The increasingly equal involvement of both parents in the upbringing of their children is expected to translate into increasing geographic proximity between children and non-resident parents. So far, there has been no evidence about the time trends in geographical distances between minor children and non-resident parents outside of the Swedish context. In this study, we investigate these trends across Belgian separation cohorts from 1992 to 2018 and the extent to which they differ according to parental socioeconomic status and child’s age at separation. Overall, we observed a very small decrease in distance between children and their non-resident fathers and a somewhat larger decrease for non-resident mothers. The distance increased for very young children (0–2 years) and children with low-educated fathers. These findings point to inequalities in certain parent–child dyads.

Stability in children’s residential arrangements and distance to nonresident parents in the 10 years after parental separation

“…In 21% of cases, the children spent about equal time (30% to 70%) with both parents, and only in 9% of cases 70% to 100% of their time with their father (Sodermans et al 2014). Recent research using Belgian register data (where the child can be registered with only one parent) shows that the share of mothers who do not live with their children following marital or nonmarital union dissolution increased from 13% in 1996 to 23% in 2018 (Zilincikova and Schnor 2023).…”

“…The distance between a child and their nonresident parent tends to be short. In Belgium, around 45% of minor children whose parents separated in 2018 lived in the same municipality as their nonresident parent in the year after separation (Zilincikova and Schnor 2023). Similar results have been found in Norway, where 70% of nonresident mothers and 62% of nonresident fathers live less than 10 km from their children in 2012, regardless of the timing of the separation (Dommermuth 2016), and in Sweden, where about half of nonresident parents separated in 2011 lived less than 2 km from their children in the year after the separation (Turunen, Brandén, and Lundström 2023).…”