Scientists identify difficulties men face during divorce 01:27

Italian scientists from the University of Padua examined the changes in family ties that occur as a result of people’s divorce. They found that when a marriage ends, it becomes much more difficult for men to bond with their children. The research was published in the scientific journal broadcasting Journal of Marriage and Family (JMF).

The team used data from the “Families, Social Actors and Life Cycle” report prepared by the Italian National Statistics Office in 2014.

The study provided comprehensive demographic and family information from more than 24,000 households, making it a suitable data set for examining intergenerational communication patterns.

The researchers focused on adult children ages 30 to 55 who no longer lived with their parents. Age limits were chosen to examine parent-adult child relationships in families where children were transitioning to independent living, but excluded older generations where parental separation was less common.

Through the survey, researchers identified a final sample of 6,770 adult children, corresponding to 11,041 parent-child pairs.

Researchers have observed clear gender differences in parent-child contact after separation. In separated families, fathers were much less likely than mothers to have frequent contact with their children. This pattern held true across all types of communication; however, the difference was most pronounced in face-to-face and telephone communication.

Differences between separated mothers and fathers were greater in father-daughter relationships than in father-son relationships. For example, separated fathers were 29% less likely than mothers to have frequent face-to-face contact with their daughters and 35% less likely to have face-to-face contact with their daughters. Sons were less likely to differentiate communication styles between their mothers and fathers, resulting in a smaller gender gap.

Fathers who were less likely to interact with their children face-to-face were also less likely to maintain online communication. This supports the “accumulation hypothesis,” which suggests that reduced face-to-face contact exacerbates difficulties in other forms of interaction. In contrast, fathers who communicated frequently face-to-face were more likely to stay connected via phone and digital means.

The age of the child at the time of parental divorce appears to play an important role, especially for girls. Gender differences in contact were larger when girls were younger at the time of divorce (ages 0–7) but decreased when divorces occurred during adolescence (ages 8–17). This suggests that older children may have more opportunities to establish stable relationships with both parents before divorce, reducing the impact of post-separation contact.

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