October 24, 2012Dear Sir,ChildWatch has always tried to educate society on new research pertaining to children affected by their parents’ separation or divorce, and how well they fared through their lives.In Bermuda, we often hear the cry for father figures in the lives of many Bermuda’s children. Often, we hear the question: “Why are fathers not more involved with their children?” Part of the answer lies in the fact that in Bermuda, sole custody is awarded to mothers in 85 percent of child custody cases, with alternate weekend visitation being granted to fathers, which amounts to 52 days per year. Also, historically Bermuda’s Affiliation Act did not deem unwed fathers to be a parent; fathers were not allowed to bring matters before the court, such as visitation rights, information pertaining to their children and were refused DNA testing if paternity was uncertain, etc. It is hard to believe that 85 percent of fathers are unworthy of having their children in their lives for more than one day per week. Our members feel they were reduced to visitor status, hardly the role that a father normally should play in the life of his children. Through ChildWatch’s lobbying, the Affiliation Act was abolished in 2002 and the Children’s Amendment Act 2002 became law. Despite these amendments, courts kept the status quo.Dr Linda Nielsen has provided us with some profound findings in her meta-analysis study, due to be released in the American Journal of Family Law in January, 22102. She states: “For four decades children have reported the loss of the father as the most negative aspect of divorce. Even when they continued to see each other, most relationships declined in closeness over time. This has been primarily a result of the traditional visiting patterns of every other weekend which has been slow to change even in the face of mounting research evidence and a reluctance to order overnights for your children”ChildWatch’s membership has expressed these concerns for years and we believe that Bermuda suffers from these deficiencies of father involvement as the research states. The research of Joan Kelly has been important in this finding (Kelly, J. (2012) Risk and protective factors for children of divorce).Dr Nielsen further states: “More important still, the correlation was much stronger in the recent studies, as expected; children were better off when they spent time with fathers who had positive relationships with their children and were actively engaged in parenting. Given this, they recommended changing custody policies so that fathers would not be restricted to weekend time. In an even more recent review of the research, it is stated: “Consequently, policies and interventions designed to improve ties between fathers and children should be maintained and encouraged”.In addition: “Having a close and enduring relationship with their fathers should — in and of itself — be enough justification for maximising fathering time. But non-residential fathering time is correlated with other positive outcomes for children as well. Among the benefits are higher self-esteem, less delinquency and drug use, fewer behavioural problems, and less smoking and dropping out of high school. In fact, adolescents from intact families who do not feel close to their fathers are more delinquent than adolescents with divorced parents who feel close to their fathers”.Theses finding are robust across a wide range of studies with large samples from around the world and different age groups.The second premise on which shared parenting is based is that overnight time benefits children more than daytime contact only with their fathers. In an Australian study, those children who spent overnight time in their father’s home felt closer to him and felt he knew more about what was going on in their lives than those who spent the same amount of time with their fathers, but never overnight time.Should we ignore these risk factors, and pretend that all is well in Bermuda? The Bermuda National Drug Control 2010 study showed high uses of alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes and also showed that 19 percent were in gangs by the age of 10 and 85 percent of gang membership had taken place by the age of 14 years old.These studies reinforce ChildWatch long-standing call for changing Bermuda’s current laws to “shared parenting”. It will lead to better children’s outcomes and that is what counts.EDWARD TAVARESChildWatch Co-founder