Residency and contact time with children after divorce or separation: mothers and fathers’ experiences

Abstract

The article explores the practices and subjective meanings that allocate parenting time and its influence in shaping parental roles, identity and the relationship with the child both among separated mothers and fathers, and in divorce law. Drawing on an online survey, results reveal that the law preserves the use of gender to allocate parental time in the regime of residence and contact. In this regime, resident mothers experience the interplay between affective and identity gratification, and parental overload. Instead, nonresident fathers cope with parental deprivation and submission to traditional fathering. In the regime of shared residence, parents are engaged both in equal parenting and in the challenges of adjusting different parenting styles, which are not always accepted by the law.