"Joy" wrote in message
...
Geez, just noticed the cross post on my earlier response. Before anybody
gets all up in arms at the idea that I'd ask about kids whose fathers are
less than sterling, I'd like to point out that this was intended as a
legitimate question (which would have been understood in the one group on
this distribution list that I normally post to). There seem to be a lot
of
studies on the negative effect on kids of having less contact with a
parent
after a divorce - but this always seems to refer to kids who actually had
a
significant relationship with both parents before the divorce. My "What
about those kids whose fathers didn't pay attention to them *before* the
divorce?" question was referring to those kids who, well, didn't have a
significant relationship with both parents before the divorce. I don't
think I've ever seen a study on the effect of divorce on those kids, and
wondered if there are any such studies.

There is tons of research on mothers of children who didn't have a
significant relationship with their children (or the child's father) before
the mothers were forced to give up the children. The fact a child's parents
were married or not married has nothing to do with parental involvement pre
or post divorce. The real issue is the number of children who are growing
up without fathers in their lives.