Role Loss Especially Among Non-Custodial Parents

Social institutions such as schools that often fail to discuss a child’s performance and adjustment with a non-custodial parent reinforce the sense of role loss. Joint custody parents who have more contact with their children generally do not report this sense of role loss. The conclusion “that it is not just the fact of having children, but the experience of an active ongoing relationship with them, that is ego-producing supports the work of Erikson, Biller and others who have noted the importance of such involvement parenting for healthy adult development” (Greif 1977; 1979).

Sources

Greif J. B (1977). Child Absence: Fathers' Perception of Their Relationship To Their Children Subsequent To Divorce. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Adelphi University.

Greif J. B (1979). Fathers, Children and Joint Custody. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 49: 311-319