Repartnering after parental separation in Australia: Benefits and risks

Abstract

In Australia, as in many western societies, repartnering is a relatively common experience following separation or divorce. The aim of the present study was to investigate to what extent Australian parents form new relationships post-separation, and under which socio-demographic conditions. It also sought to explore the relationship between repartnering and parental involvement, family dynamics, and family wellbeing, and whether any associations between each were dependent on parental gender and post-separation parenting arrangements. This research made use of new longitudinal data from the Child Support Reform Study, a national, random sample of separated Australian parents. Discrete-time event-analysis (the first stage of the analysis) revealed that within six years of separation, almost one third of separated parents had repartnered. Mothers were significantly less likely than fathers to repartner. So too were older separated parents, and/or those who had children in the household – though mothers and fathers were found to experience the effects of these characteristics differently. In addition, financial resources also mattered: full-time employment and home ownership were found to be particularly important for paternal repartnering. Mothers on higher annual incomes were more likely to repartner than mothers reliant on government income support. Furthermore, separated parents in households that included other adult family members had significantly lower odds of repartnering than households without other adult family members living there. In the second stage of the analysis, which made use of fixed effect models, repartnering was shown to involve both benefits and risks. Repartnering was generally associated with improvements to parents’ physical and emotional health, finances (especially for mothers), and overall life satisfaction. But repartnering was not without its costs: subtle but significant negative effects on co-parental communication and relationship quality, the mother–child relationship, and paternal parenting time were evident. The present study points to the value of using more sophisticated analytic approaches with longitudinal data, and the importance of including a greater range of post-separation parenting arrangements (including shared-time) to provide a more nuanced understanding of the role that repartnering plays in shaping family wellbeing following separation. Show more