Children's Experiences of 'Home' after Parental Separation

Abstract

This paper is part of an ongoing Australian project that seeks to explore the meaning of ‘home’ for children in separated families. No prior family law research has done so. This is despite the personal and social significance of home, the reality that most Australian children now move to some degree across two households if parents separate, and increasing emphasis in policy, law and professional practice internationally on listening to children regarding their post-separation living arrangements. Drawing on interviews with 22 children conducted in 2011 as part of a larger qualitative study, we find that home – or its emotional absence – was constituted primarily through relationships. Chil..