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European Sociological Review Advance Access published online on February 20, 2007
European Sociological Review, doi:10.1093/esr/jcl032
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Contacts between Divorced and Non-Divorced Parents and Their Adult Children in the Netherlands: An Investment Perspective*

Paul M. de Graaf

Paul M. de Graaf, Department of Sociology, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, Netherlands. Email: pdegraaf{at}uvt.nl

Tineke Fokkema

Tineke Fokkema, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, P.O. Box 11650, 2502 The Hague, Netherlands. Email: fokkema{at}nidi.nl.

This article addresses descriptive and explanatory research questions on the contact frequency between divorced parents and their adult children. The survey Divorce in the Netherlands 1998 has data on the contact frequency between 803 divorced respondents and 214 non-divorced parents and 2,122 non-resident children older than 18 years. The data show that divorced fathers have less contact with their adult children than fathers who did not divorce; for mothers the effects of divorce is small. To explain the lower contact frequency of fathers when compared with mothers, as well as the variation in contact frequency among divorced fathers, we use an investment perspective. We identify five investment factors: involvement in parenting during the marriage, the custody arrangement, pre- and post-divorce conflicts, alimony payments, and (not) starting a new family. About half of the effect of divorce on the contact frequency between fathers and adult children can be explained by the custody arrangement. Within the divorced, both the custody arrangement and remarriage explain the contact frequency, and the effects are equal for divorced fathers and mothers. We find only limited evidence that the involvement in parenting during the marriage, parental conflict, and the observance of alimony payment have direct effects on the contact frequency between divorced parents and their adult children.

Manuscript received: November 1, 2005.


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