The legal proceedings associated with the divorce also play a role in subsequent involvement of nonresidential fathers. Litigated divorce proceedings, which tend to exacerbate conflict between men and their former spouses, are related to subsequent lower levels of involvement on the part of nonresidential fathers. Mediation, in its attempt to remain impartial and represent the interests of both spouses, is related to higher levels of nonresidential father involvement. Finally, nonresidential fathers may be affected by the lack of clearly defined societal roles for men in their position. The father role in American society is defined by fathers living in the same households as their children.
Few guidelines exist for the behavior of nonresidential fathers.
Because of the lack of a clearly defined role, nonresidential fathers often have difficulty carrying out paternal responsibilities. Family practitioners may implement a number of intervention strategies to assist nonresidential fathers and their children in building strong relationships. As a preliminary step, practitioners should recognize the diversity of paternal responses after divorce. Each father's response to separation from his children will be unique. Unfortunately, divorce proceedings tend to approach these individual cases uniformly.