Paternity ruled out for 3 in 10

ALMOST one-third of men who undergo a paternity test discover they are raising someone else's child.

An international analysis of more than 37,000 paternity tests found that 29.8 per cent of men who doubted their paternity had their suspicions confirmed by a test.

Men's Rights Agency co-founder Sue Price said men usually sought a paternity test if they thought their wife or partner had had an affair.

"Suspicion of an affair, separation, divorce and being told you're a father after having a one-night stand are the main reasons men had a paternity test," she said.

"And sometimes the men may look nothing like the child.

"Also, some men might have been harboring suspicions over the years and when they separate from their wives they want to find out for sure."

Kermyt Anderson, a researcher at the University of Oklahoma who conducted the study, said: "Paternity confidence has important implications for a man's involvement with his children, since men are less likely to interact with and support children whom they did not believe to be theirs.

"Men in marriages are likely to have higher paternity confidence than men who father children outside the marriage."

But Ms Price said most men remained close to the children even after they discovered they were not the biological father.

"Most fathers that we've encountered who found out they weren't the parent of the children have continued to have a very good relationship with these children," she said.

"It's extremely difficult for the men and the children, but there is still a bond there."