A Parenting Team?

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By five years old, 25% of children in the UK will have experienced the separation of their parents (Understanding Society 2018). It has traditionally been assumed by the public and courts of law that mothers should receive sole physical custody of their children, pushing them into single parenting despite shared legal custody with fathers. However, over the last two decades there has been an increasing shift towards shared physical custody, such that in 2018 leading experts called for a presumption of joint physical and legal custody, and by inference shared parenting (Braver & Lamb, 2018). Research outside the UK has found an advantage for shared parenting of children in joint physical custody across a range of domains, though noting some disadvantages, such as constant switching between homes (Nielsen, 2018). There is also a substantial body of evidence that conflict between parents, before and after separation, is associated with poorer child outcomes (Amato, 2001; Amato, 2010). It is estimated that 9% of UK families engage in shared parenting post separation (Peacey & Hunt, 2010), but there is no UK research on how children are faring in these families. What are relationships like within these shared parenting families? How do separated couples manage shared parenting? What is it like for children? If we are to address the UK policy drive to improve child and adolescent mental health (Department of Health Green Paper, 2017), it is imperative that we understand how separated couples manage shared parenting and how this effects children. Without this, potential targets for improving child adjustment and family life post-divorce are not well understood and decisions guiding parenting plans produced by courts are made upon assumptions and not evidence. I propose to use this fellowship to publicise and extend my research examining parents as partners to influence both scientific understanding and public policy.I am a developmental psychologist and my doctoral research followed 200 mothers and fathers and examined psychological wellbeing and family relationships from pregnancy through the first two years of their first-born child's life. Despite an increase in fathers' involvement in childcare, the majority of research remains focused on mothers. My research explored whether the same factors (e.g., depression, couple relationship quality) influence both mothers' and fathers' parenting and how members of a couple impact each other. I found mothers', but not fathers', thoughts and feelings about their infant during pregnancy predicted the quality of their parenting during infancy. Whilst fathers' but not mothers' parenting over the first two years of life was more susceptible to outside influence, for example from mothers' behaviour and mental health and the quality of their couple relationship. These findings have important practical implications - mothers and fathers may need different types of support at different time points and helping one parent may lead to benefits for the other, which in turn may improve later child outcomes. During my fellowship I will consolidate the research arising from my PhD to l enable me to pursue an independent career in academia. First, I aim to further publish and publicise the findings from my doctoral research. Second, I aim to develop my ability to translate research into policy and practice. Specifically, I will become associated with OnePlusOne, a national relationship charity, to develop content for their digital interventions for couples based upon my doctoral research. Third, I will test the feasibility of conducting the first UK study examining co-parenting after relationship breakdown. This pilot will ensure I will be in a well-informed position to develop my applications for further independent research funding which will enable me to extend the research field of parenting influences on child development and take my academic career to the next stage.