Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This is a qualitative data collection. This project explored how shared care is understood, negotiated and practised by separated families, to assess the appropriateness of existing questions in Understanding Society in capturing the phenomenon, and to suggest changes where appropriate. This data consists of the transcripts of 31 semi-structured interviews of separated parents sampled from the longitudinal dataset Understanding Society: 13 men and 18 women. Included are interviews from 7 formerly partnered couples (14 interviews in total). Separated parents with at least one child under 16, who reported at least weekly contact between their children and the non-resident parent in the Understanding Society dataset were eligible for interview, and a random subset of these were invited to participate. Interviews were conducted from across the UK and with parents with varying current partnerships statuses, number and age of children, and employment statuses.

Main Topics:

shared care, separation, child care, parenting, division of household labour

Purposive selection/case studies

Interview