Inspired by the thousands of distressed children in our Fegans counselling rooms and the heartbroken parents in our DAD.info forum, this survey was devised to gain insight into the impact of divorce and separation on family life. It is our hope that the lived experience of the 1,000 UK parents surveyed will help those contemplating separation or divorce.
In the below we have shared the survey responses in detail to preserve the integrity of the parent respondent’s voices. Alongside our findings we have also shared our understanding based on our therapeutic experience of what these results mean for parents grappling with divorce or separation.
It is of note that the data was collected during the first weeks of the March lockdown. Since then, in our view, the situation for divorced or separated parents has deteriorated; exacerbated by Family Courts operating remotely, by lost contact due to varying interpretations of Covid restrictions and by the known increase in domestic violence. The circumstances of 2020 haven’t promoted improvements for separated parents.
The full report can be found here.
* 509 separated or divorced Dads and 596 separated or divorced Mums took part on the survey online from 17 March to 16 April 2020. Data was collected independently through www.cint.com