Official Statistics

Parental conflict indicator 2011 to 2020

Updated 25 March 2022

1. Introduction

Evidence shows that poor relationships between parents can damage children’s short term and long-term wellbeing. Frequent, intense, and poorly resolved parental conflict can affect their mental health, overall wellbeing, and future employment. Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families set out how the government plans to address the root causes of worklessness, as well as monitor and track progress using a set of national indicators.

This publication sets out the methodology underlying one of the indicators, the parental conflict indicator.

The parental conflict indicator comprises 2 measures:

• the proportion of children in couple-parent families living with parents who report relationship distress

• the proportion of children in separated families who see their non-resident parent regularly

Within couple-parent families, we are measuring the proportion of children in families where at least one of the adults is experiencing relationship distress, as evidence suggests this affects child outcomes.

Where parents are separated, analysis of the available data on frequency of contact shows that regular contact between the child and their non-resident parent is a good indication of a better relationship between the parents.

The measure of the proportion of children in separated families who see their non-resident parent regularly is therefore used as a proxy for the existence of reasonable relations between parents.

This publication is updated on a 2-yearly (biennial) basis in line with the availability of underlying data.

2. Main Stories

There has not been a significant change in the proportion of children in couple-parent families where at least one parent has reported relationship distress in 2019 to 2020, compared with the previous figures.

There has not been a significant change in the proportion of children who see their non-resident parent regularly in 2019 to 2020 compared with the previous figures.

3. Relationship distress in couple-parent families

Proportion of children in couple-parent families where at least one adult has reported relationship distress

Understanding Society Survey wave (year)	Proportion of Children (%)
2011 to 2012	13%
2013 to 2014	12%
2015 to 2016	11%
2017 to 2018	12%
2019 to 2020	12%

Source: Understanding Society Survey, waves 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11

In 2019 to 2020, 12% of children in couple-parent families were living with at least one parent reporting relationship distress. There is no evidence of a change in the level since 2017 to 2018.

Around one third of responses during this wave were obtained after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are not able to assess whether the responses of these participants would have been affected by the pandemic, but we can compare the responses of families with an interview date after 1 April 2020 against those with an earlier interview date. This analysis did not find evidence of a significant difference in the proportion of children living with at least one parent reporting relationship distress.

Details and methodology

This measure was developed by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) analysts using cross sectional analysis of Understanding Society survey data. This means that we are looking at the data which shows what is going on at that specific point of time (or ‘wave’ of data in this case).

A couple-parent family is classified as experiencing relationship distress if either parent responds that most or all the time they consider divorce, regret living together, quarrel, or get on each other’s nerves (in response to questions asking about their relationship with their partner).

These questions were chosen from a wider range available in the survey, as there was a higher link between negative responses to these questions and other negative outcomes of interest.

Previous publications have also provided a breakdown of relationship distress in couple-parent families by employment status. This is no longer possible, as the size of the sample is now too small for us to produce comparable estimates of relationship distress for children in couple-parent families where both parents have reported that they are workless (not in paid employment).

Further information about the development of the measure can be found in about these statistics section.

4. Regularity of contact in separated families

Proportion of children who see their non-resident parent regularly: 2013 to 2016 and 2019 to 2020

Understanding Society Survey wave (year)	Proportion of Children (%)
2013 to 2014	53%
2015 to 2016	52%
2019 to 2020	52%

Source: Understanding Society Survey, waves 5, 7, and 11

In 2019 to 2020, 52% of children in separated families saw their non-resident parent regularly – that is, at least fortnightly. This is unchanged from the last available figure from 2015 to 2016, while data were not available for the period 2017 to 2018.

Around one third of responses during this wave were obtained after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are not able to assess whether the responses of these participants would have been affected by the pandemic.

We can, however, compare the responses of families with an interview date from 1st April 2020 onwards, against those with an earlier interview date. This analysis found evidence of a significant difference in the frequency of contact reported by these two groups of families – 55% for families interviewed before the start of the pandemic and 45% afterwards.

The frequency of contact is likely to have been influenced by the restrictions in place during this period so we cannot conclude anything about the impact of the pandemic on the level of conflict experienced between separated parents.

Details and methodology

Information around relationship quality between separated parents is not fully reported in Understanding Society (only for around 30% of cases). However, analysis of the available data on frequency of contact shows that regular contact between the child and non-resident parent is a good indication of a better relationship between the parents. This leads us to focus on the frequency of contact between the non-resident parent and child which is available for most respondents and serves as a proxy for reasonable quality inter-parental relationships among separated families, as well as being a positive outcome in its own right.

All adult respondents are asked whether they are the parent of a child under 20 where the other parent is not in the household. Those who say ‘yes’ are asked some further questions, including how often the child ‘usually sees’ the non-resident parent in term time and (separately) in holidays. Results are similar in both questions. We have defined regularly as ‘at least fortnightly’ during term time.

Questions about contact in separated families are asked of both resident and non-resident parents in the survey. We are using the views of resident parents for this indicator because research suggests much lower response rates to surveys for non-resident parents that do not have contact with their children (for example, see Peacey and Hunt, 2008 (PDF)). Using responses from non-resident parents is therefore likely to over-estimate the proportion of children who see their non-resident parent regularly.

A change in the underlying survey meant that data were not collected from 2017 to 2018 for every child with a non-resident parent. A further change has enabled us to resume production of this statistic for 2019 to 2020, but it will not be possible to retrospectively produce an estimate for 2017 to 2018.

5. About these statistics

How the couple-parent relationship distress measure is derived

The Understanding Society survey collects information about the quality of couple relationships through 10 questions; these questions are:

1. How often do you have a stimulating exchange of ideas? (IDEAS)
2. How often do you calmly discuss something? (DISCUSS)
3. How often do you work together on a project? (WORK TOGETHER)
4. How often do you and your partner ““get on each other’s nerves””? (NERVES)
5. How often do you consider divorce/separation? (DIVORCE)
6. Do you ever regret that you married or lived together? (REGRET)
7. How often do you and your partner quarrel? (QUARREL)
8. Do you kiss your partner? (KISS)
9. Do you and your partner engage in outside interests together? (INTERESTS)
10. Overall, how happy are you with your relationship? (HAPPINESS)

Each of the 10 questions have been analysed by exploring the association between negative responses to the questions and a range of indicators which are directly or indirectly associated with outcomes of children. There are three type of outcomes we have considered, which are:

1. Children’s behavioural outcomes: as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire sub-scores: Emotional Symptoms and Conduct Problems.
2. Poor maternal mental health as measured by the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. Poor parental mental health is associated with poorer outcomes for children.
3. Likelihood of separation in the following year of the survey. Parental separation can carry economic risks for both children and parents.

For each of the 10 relationship quality questions, the parents have been divided into 2 groups:

• those who responded negatively to the question

• those who did not respond negatively to the question

The average score for each of the 3 outcomes is measured and compared between the 2 groups of parents.

Results of this comparison were used to score each relationship quality question:

• higher scores were assigned to those questions where a larger difference between the 2 groups of parents was observed

• no points were given if the result of the comparison was not statistically significant

The results of this comparison are summarised as follows (strongest to weakest relationship):

1. REGRET
2. DIVORCE
3. QUARREL
4. NERVES
5. DISCUSS
6. KISS
7. WORK TOGETHER
8. IDEAS
9. INTERESTS
10. HAPPINESS

The top 4 questions, REGRET, DIVORCE, QUARREL and NERVES were chosen to inform the indicator.

The final measure has been constructed such that, if either adult answers negatively to any of the 4 questions, the relationship is considered to be ‘distressed.’ If either adult did not respond to the 4 questions, then the quality of the relationship is defined to be ‘unknown’.

Data source – Understanding Society survey

Understanding Society is a nationwide household survey, which has been interviewing up to 40,000 households across the UK annually from 2009 onwards. The survey captures a wide range of information about people’s social and economic circumstances, attitudes, behaviours, and health and contains a rich range of information on families. It is a longitudinal household survey, which means it follows and records information on the same families over time. Questions about relationship quality and frequency of contact for separated parents are asked every 2 years.

Data source – cross sectional analysis

These figures relate to all children for which data is available in the relevant years.

These indicators were originally published in Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families for 2011 to 2012 and 2013 to 2014. For the period 2011 to 2014 children whose families had dropped out were not included in our sample.

We changed the methodology because, as we increase the number of waves, this approach would increasingly restrict and bias our sample, and it also would mean that the whole back-series would change each time.

Data source – changes in the sample

The longitudinal nature of the study means that the number of participants has been reducing over time. Over 18,000 children were included in the sample in 2011 to 2012 but this has fallen to around 10,000 in 2019 to 2020. While this is still sufficient to produce our headline measures, it does affect some of the smaller sub-groups that we analyse – the smallest of which was the number of children in couple-parent families where both parents were workless. 

The figures previously published for 2017 to 2018 suggested that there had been a reduction in the level of relationship distress amongst couple-parent families where both parents were workless.  However, as the sample size has continued to fall, we are no longer able to determine whether changes in the measure reflect what is going on in the wider population or are just specific to the sample studied.  As a result, we will no longer be producing this breakdown.

6. Where to find out more

• read about the Improving Lives: Helping Working Families analysis and the development of the indicators

• read the policy paper which this evidence base underpins

• read the previous release of the parental conflict indicator statistics

7. Contacts

Feedback on the content, relevance, accessibility, and timeliness of these statistics and any non-media enquiries should be directed by email to:

Analyst: Andrew Blacklock

Media enquiries: Contact DWP press office

ISBN: 978-1-78659-413-6