Stepfamilies have become a topic of current interest as the divorce rates seem to be continuously increasing. In Finland 8% of all families with children are stepfamilies. The changing nature of family life has meant that parenting roles, expectations and responsibilities are in transition. The responsibility for children is not based on the marriage and partnership but rather on the parental obligation towards the children (Maclean & Eekelaar 1997). Many studies indicate that the interest of children in the post-separation situation is generally best served when children can maintain continuing and frequent contact with the non-resident parent (Amato & Gilbreth 1999; Pryor & Rodgers 2001; Bauserman 2002; Dunn et al. 2004). The child’s visiting right is therefore an important tool for improving the well-being of those children whose parents are not living together. Recent studies suggest that about a third of children have no contact with their non-resident parent (Bradshaw et al. 1999; Blackwell & Dawe 2003) and children in stepfamilies meet their non-resident parents more rarely than children in lone parent families (Bradshaw et al. 1999). This paper concentrates on results found considering the relationships between children living in a stepfamily and non-resident father. Main research questions are: how often child has contact with non-resident father and what factors are connected to the contact of the child and non-resident father?

The research was conducted with a rather large survey in spring 2002. Family type (nuclear family, single-parent family and stepfamily) and ages of the children determined the population of the research. From this population, 4200 Finnish families were randomly chosen. The sample constituted of 1200 two-parent families, 1500 single-parent families, and 1500 stepfamilies. These families had children aged 3, 6 or/and 8 years at the time the study was conducted. The questionnaires were filled in by 2236 parents and the hit rate was approximately 54 %. Even the response rate was quite low, the respondents corresponded quite well the situation of families with children in Finland. In this study there were 553 stepfamilies, where there was a non-resident father. The respondents were mothers with whom the child was living. So the results tell the story from resident mother’s point of view.

In stepfamilies over 60% of children had contact with their non-resident father at least once a month. According to the multivariate analysis of variance the contact of the child and non-resident father were increased by joint custody of the child, short geographical distance, functional co-operation between ex-spouses, child maintenance paid by the non-resident father and good relationship between child and non-resident father. The structural factors of the stepfamilies seemed to have quite slight influence. For example, a common child of the spouses seemed to have an indirect influence on the contact between the child and the non-resident father: the birth of the common child in a stepfamily could lead to difficulties in the co-operation between the biological parents of an older child. Non-functional co-operation was connected to the contact between the child and the non-resident father.