Almost half of children (48 per cent) whose fathers do not live with them see their dads less than once a week, according to the latest report from the Government's longitudinal study on the progress of Ireland's children.
Parental separation is having “a considerable impact” on children's routines, and leading to relationships with non-resident parents that are “challenging to sustain,” the Growing Up in Ireland study says.
The study also showed that children whose parents worked long hours and were less available “felt less close” to their parents.
The study is following two cohorts of children; an infant cohort of 11,100 children aged between nine months and three years of age, and a child cohort of 8,500 aged between nine and 13 years of age.
In the larger group of nine year olds, 17 per cent of children were living apart from their fathers, with one quarter of these having daily contact with their fathers, and 35 per cent having contact at least once a week.
The remaining 48 per cent had less contact.
The study also looked at a more in depth group of 122 children, aged between nine and ten and the results of interviews with this group were released yesterday.
Of this group, 36 children had only one parent, in all cases the mother, living with them.
Just over 50 per cent of this group had weekly contact with their fathers.
One of the girls interviewed said that she only got to see her father once a month since her mum and dad split up. “I would love to see him every day,” she said. “Most of the time I feel upset because he is not here.”
Another girl told an interviewer that she didn't get on well with her father.
“I barely see him,” she said. When asked whether she ever did anything with her father, she replied, “Not anymore.”
Overall, the report found that children described their relationships with their parents as mostly positive.
Over 80 per cent of children said they got on very well with both their mothers and fathers.
Less than one per cent of children said that they did not get on with their mothers or fathers.
Children were able to link being overweight to eating unhealthily and not exercising.
Children who were classified as overweight or obese were no different in their judgement of healthy body size than those who were not classified as overweight.
The report also showed that children were generally knowledgeable about healthy and unhealthy foods.