Custody, Access and Child Support: Findings from The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth

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III - WHEN PARENTS SEPARATE: CANADIAN CHILDREN FROM BROKEN FAMILIES AND THE LAW (continued)

Legal Custody, Living Arrangements and Access to the Non-custodial Parent

Let us first examine how situations where the parents said they had a court order for custody were different from those where there was no court order. Is there any difference in terms of contact with the non-custodial parent and the living arrangements of the children?

To obtain information on the actual living arrangements of the children, the following questions were posed in the survey:

• With whom did ... go on living at the time of the separation?

  • 1. Mother only
  • 2. Father only
  • 3. Shared-time basis, mostly mother
  • 4. Shared-time basis, mostly father
  • 5. Equally-shared time, mother and father
  • 6. Other
  • 8. Don't know
  • 9. Refusal

• At that time, what type of contact did ... have with his/her other parent?

  • 1. Regular visiting, every week
  • 2. Regular visiting, every two weeks
  • 3. Regular visiting, monthly
  • 4. Irregular visiting, on holidays only
  • 5. Irregular visiting, without set pattern
  • 6. Telephone or letter contact only
  • 7. No contact at all
  • 8. Other
  • 98. Don't know
  • 99. Refusal

For the purpose of our analysis, we have defined visiting every week or every two weeks as "regular visiting"; visiting monthly, on holidays only or without set pattern as "irregular visiting"; and we included telephone or letter contact only with no contact at all under the heading "never visits."

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