Some whens, hows and whys of shared care: What separated parents who spend equal time with their children say about shared parenting
Bruce Smyth, Catherine Caruana and Anna Ferro
Australian Institute of Family Studies
Contact Email:   Bruce.Smythaifs.gov.au

Despite the broad policy push towards encouraging co-parenting after separation - most notably the recently announced parliamentary inquiry into a rebuttable principle of joint residence - little is known about parents who opt for shared care arrangements, how these arrangements are structured, and how well the arrangements work.

In this paper, we examine the arrangements, motives, and reflections of separated parents who equally share the care of their children. Our data are qualitative and derive from a series of focus groups. Fifty-six separated parents (27 mothers, 29 fathers) were interviewed on a range of issues related to parent-child contact. Groups were structured around five different patterns of father-child contact: (a) 50:50 shared care, (b) medium-range contact, (c) day-only contact, (d) holiday-only contact; and (e) little or no contact. Participants were recruited through a range of non-probability sampling strategies.

While these data are being used to inform a larger study investigating contact and child-support issues, they nonetheless offer useful insights into shared parenting - particularly in relation to the work/family balance, co-parental conflict, and financial issues.

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