Interim findings on a scoping review of engaging non-resident parents

In light of the above considerations, the team at DCEDIY commissioned the ESRI to

conduct a review of the engagement of non-resident fathers in surveys (fathers tend

to be the vast majority of non-resident parents). This review included focus groups

with stakeholders including advocacy groups, parents with lived experience of being

either a lone parent or a non-resident parent, interviews with the principal

investigators of other child cohort studies, and a literature review. The report, when

finished, will also include an analysis of response patterns in the non-resident surveys

previously conducted with Cohort 08 at ages 3 and 9 years (Smyth et al. in press).

At time of writing, the review has reached the following preliminary conclusions:

•While many studies similar to Growing Up in Ireland do attempt to survey nonresident parents, engagement is typically comparable to that achieved in previous waves of Growing Up in Ireland (i.e. low).

•One of a small number of exceptions to low response rates for non-resident parents is Growing Up in Australia. In a personal communication, they advise that 69% of resident mothers provided contact details for the non-resident father. Attempts to survey the non-resident parent were filtered on him having at least some contact with the child. The response rate was 35% via postal survey at wave 2, but 79% with a telephone interview at wave 3. The Growing Up in Australia study team felt that a telephone call from an interviewer was an important feature in the improved response rate. They also sent out advance letters that gave detailed information on the rationale for including non-resident parents in the survey.

•Most of the other cohort studies that collect data from non-resident parents archive that data for use by researchers.

•Consultations with stakeholder groups indicated that accounts of the relationship between the non-resident parent and child are likely to be skewed if reported solely by the resident parent. These consultations also confirmed that many resident parents would be reluctant to provide the contact details for a non-resident parent for a variety of reasons including domestic violence at one end of the spectrum to not wanting to get the non-resident parent in some kind of trouble at the other end.

•An ESRI analysis of the characteristics of resident parents who did provide consent and contact details to contact the non-resident parent in Wave 1 of Cohort 98 and 08, showed that consent was more likely from households where the couple had previously lived together, they got on reasonably well,

and where financial support was received from the non-resident parent. This would seem to confirm previous concerns that the completed non-resident surveys that were received in the past are unlikely to be representative of the whole population.

Recommendations for Cohort 24 at 3 years:

•A more detailed recommendation on including a non-resident parent survey for Cohort 08 at 3 years will follow once the completed scoping review is received from the ESRI.

•On the basis of the available information, however, the Department is inclined to the view that collecting data directly from non-resident parents would be important even if the previous methodology needs to be revised.

Childcare providers