Parents’ income, child care and organising everyday life in divorced families - A continuation project of the shared residence project
The research project examines the organisation of child support and care after the parents’ divorce, and the related factors in Finnish divorced families. We study the kind of financial impacts that sharing child support and costs between parents has on the parents' income, how children's living arrangements, and especially shared residence, are reflected in the well-being of the child and parents, and to what extent the child's participation is realised when deciding on the child's living arrangements. We also examine parents' opinions and satisfaction with maintenance and living arrangements.
The study utilises a nationwide survey of divorced parents collected in a study by Kela in 2019. A total of nearly 3,500 resident and non-resident parents responded to the survey. Kela's benefit register data were combined with the survey data for those respondents who gave their consent. The project is a continuation of the Children's shared residence and social security project (Children's shared residence and social security: The current state and significance of shared residence for the benefit and service system. Government analysis, assessment and research publication series 2020:51).
The research project is carried out in cooperation with other institutes, including the University of Turku, the University of Tampere, and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
The results will provide in-depth information about the challenges faced by families with children, especially divorced families, and help to develop social security and services so that they are better able to take different family situations into consideration.
Researchers
- Anneli Miettinen, Principal Investigator
- Miia Saarikallio-Torp
- Ella Sihvonen
- Hanna-Mari Heinonen
Duration of the project
1 April 2023–31 June 2026
Project Results
- Lapsen vuoroasuminen vanhempien eron jälkeen ja asumisjärjestelyjen sosioekonomiset taustatekijät (tutkimusartikkeli)
- Shared care and mothers’ post-separation economic wellbeing in Finland and Wisconsin, US: Does child support and sharing child’s costs matter (tutkimusartikkeli)
