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joint
custody research - joint custody studies shared parenting research benefits
of joint custody
A number of duplicative father's rights
websites (e.g. Shared Parenting, CRC) and custody articles cite to the
following items to make the claim that "the research" supports
joint custody as being either innocuous or actually beneficial for children
or women. A majority of mental health "helping professionals",
custody
evaluators, parenting coordinators, and guardians ad litem and so forth
who obtain work in the court system also like it -- and like to support
men's demands -- primarily because doing so exacerbates litigation and
presents an impractical mess for judges, both of which serve to create
more appointments and referrals for these therapeutic
jurisprudence types. Because of this, they spin or outright misrepresent
the research. (When called on the misrepresentations,
they frequently claim that they are only following the law or public policy
-- for which their own trade promotion organizations advocate. Many also
are men and women who don't have a clue about what actually is involved
in being a primary caregiving parent, so stupidity, lack of empathy, and
outright misogyny does play a part.)
The items are presented here in the same
order they can be found on multiple places on the internet. The
quoted father's rights text is in blue.
THE FATHERS'
RIGHTS ADVOCATES SAY, under the grandiose title: Research
on Shared Parenting and Joint Custody that
Joint custody
and shared parenting have been studied for more than a quarter-century,
with the majority of studies indicating significant benefits for children.
About a third of existing studies show no difference between joint and
sole custody for children's adjustment to divorce. The critical factor
appears to be conflict between parents. When parents cooperate and minimize
conflict, children do better with shared parenting. If there is significant
conflict between parents, however, shared parenting provides no benefits
and children do no better (and no worse) than they do in sole custody.
This section summarizes some of the research published in the past
decade.
The above statements
are blatant misrepresentations. Rarely has so much politically-motivated
effort been put into social research in the hopes of proving a desired
finding and yielded so little. Rarely have so many strained arguments
and optimistic can-do slants been incorporated into researchers' write-ups
as has been the case with findings emanating out of joint custody and father
involvement studies.
--
See generally William Marsiglio, Paul Amato, Randal D Day, Michael
E Lamb (2000) Scholarship on Fatherhood in the 1990s and Beyond Journal
of Marriage and Family 62 (4), 1173-1191.
"The children...
whose lives were governed by court orders or mediated parental arrangements
all told me that they felt like second-class citizens who had lost the
freedoms their peers took for granted. They say that as they grew older
and craved independence, they had even less say, less control over their
schedules and less power to determine when and where they could spend their
time -- especially precious vacation time."
--
Judith Wallerstein, in Unexpected Legacy (A Twenty-Five Year Landmark Study,
Hyperion 2000, p 181-2.
THE FATHERS'
RIGHTS ADVOCATES CLAIM that the research shows benefits from
Joint Physical Custody.
Their list of citations commences with Adolescents
After Divorce, Buchanan, C., Maccoby, and Dornbusch, Harvard University
Press,1996. A study of 517 families with children ranging in age from
10.5 years to 18 years, across a four and a half year period. Measures
were: assessed depression, deviance, school effort, and school grades.
Children in joint physical custody arrangements were found to have better
adjustment on these measures than those in sole custody.
The claim is
a misrepresentation. The above researchers analyzed a complex set of
variables and conditions, none of which pointed to significant differences
in adolescents' behavioral, emotional, or social well-being, when comparing
those living with either parent and those living in a "dual residence."
But that's not what the researchers were studying anyway. They were looking
at adolescents' adaptation mechanisms in a wide variety of post-divorce
circumstances. (And they did not find that joint physical custody was better
for children than sole custody.) Most of the data were gleaned from one
hour telephone interviews with the adolescents themselves. Unless
they have a basis for comparison of lifestyles, or there are severe problems
such as abuse, children are going to characterize their own lot in a contented
light.
Among the findings
that Buchanan et al. did make, however, were that children who maintained
closer relationships with their custodial (or primary residential) parent
seemed to be more well-adjusted than children who did not.
With respect to
nonresident fathers, the researchers found that remembering "special
days" (e.g., birthdays and holidays) was the only qualitative measure
of nonresident father involvement that was consistently related to adolescent
adjustment. They also found that frequency of time spent with
fathers did not affect the closeness of the father-child relationship,
although adolescents who did feel emotionally closer to their fathers tended
to show less depression (a chicken-egg correlation.) There also were
a number of adolescents in various time-sharing arrangements who articulated
feeling "caught" between their two parents' conflicts. The
researchers did observe confirmation of other researchers' findings that
shared custody arrangements over time tend to drift into more traditional
sole custody arrangements.
Also of note, a
2005 study by Margaret Brinig on the effects of presumptive joint custody
laws found as follows: "...[S]eparation after the custody statute
took effect, holding other things constant, was statistically significantly
related to a decrease in the absolute dollars of child support awards,
with a difference of about $80 a month. However, even this turns into a
larger net loss in buying power for the custodial parent because of inflation
during the same time period...
"[Presumption of joint custody] legislation
increased the number of motions to modify or enforce parenting time or
child custody... the number did increase significantly (and almost
doubled) following enactment of the statute. Most of these motions were
to change custody or visitation, not to enforce parenting time... If
the desire of the legislation was to make it easier for unhappy parents
to enforce their visitation time, its purpose was clearly not met...
"Constitutionalizing child custody, or
litigating in terms of individual parents' rights, is likely to harm
children in many ways. They may end up living with a parent more interested
in punishing the former spouse than in doing what the child needs. They
may have less money with which to live, as a child support settlement for
lower than the guideline amount pays off a parent claiming joint custody,
or if a joint custody solution is ordered but not actualized, or if scarce
resources are expended on pre or post-divorce litigation. They may live
the life of peripatetic suitcase-dwellers, and even worse, may be shuttled
between parents who actively seek to undermine each other. Joint custody
may be a fine (and even the optimal) solution if desired by both parents
who are willing to work hard towards its success. Mandatory joint custody,
or even a movement in that direction, seems to cause a number of other
problems that perhaps its proponents did not anticipate. Unfortunately,
the biggest winners, at least in Oregon, seem to be not so much the traditionally
noncustodial parents, but rather the mediators86 and, slightly less dramatically,
the divorce attorneys."
--
Brinig, Margaret (2005). Does
Parental Autonomy Require Equal Custody at Divorce? The University
of Iowa College of Law, University of Iowa Legal Studies Research Paper
Number 05-13 April, 2005
 While
there is much spindoctoring of isolated and arbitrarily selected findings
claiming here or there to discover benefits or "no difference"
between child wellbeing outcomes in joint versus sole custody, these are
specious, and overall, children do far better in more traditional arrangements.
For example, research
on children of incarcerated, employed, and militarily deployed mothers
has indicated not only unique problems for children associated with maternal
absence that are not found in cases of father absence, but also that "children
placed in a stable home environment fare far better than those bounced
from one home to another..."
--
Poehlmann, Julie. Perils and hopes for children of jailed mothers,
study, Journal Child Development (2005) http://www.news.wisc.edu/releases/11224.html.
...and children
whose mothers are absent merely for employment more than 20-30 hours a
week (including adolescents) suffer detriment, and children who are raised
by stepmothers are at increased risk.
See
generally research on mother
absence.
"[C]hildren
experiencing multiple transitions, experiencing them later in childhood,
and those living in stepfamilies fared poorly in comparison with those
living their entire childhood in stable single-parent families or moving
into two-parent families with biological or adoptive parents. Other studies
show benefits of stable single-parent living arrangements for children's
socioemotional adjustment and global wellbeing (Acock & Demo, 1994),
and deleterious effects of multiple transitions (Capaldi & Patterson,
1991; Kurdek, Fine, & Sinclair, 1995), supporting a life-stress perspective."
--
David H Demo, Martha J Cox (2000) Families With Young Children: A Review
of Research in the 1990s Journal of Marriage and Family 62 (4), 876-895.
[Discussing Buchanan
et al., above]: "I found two points of concern with the research/report
presentations. First, I appreciate the optimism and confidence in regards
to the adolescents' coping process With so much "doomsaying"
having been written about the effects of divorce it is encouraging to be
reminded of the resilience possessed by these teenagers. However, I think
it is appropriate to consider alongside this data the research done elsewhere
which suggests the real possibility of delayed responses to parental divorce.
Often the impact of divorce will manifest itself years later, particularly
in early young adulthood as men and women begin to seek deeper levels of
interpersonal intimacy. The prospects of marriage specifically induce latent
anxiety Adolescents after Divorce is an important window into the teenagers'
experiences, but it seems appropriate to acknowledge the "rest of
the story" which remains to be written in these young lives.
The limitations of one-hour interviews was
my second area of uneasiness. While the authors documented well the necessity
and validity of the methodology, I felt that more should be stated as to
the fluidity of adolescent perspectives. Adolescent self-assessments can
vary greatly even day-to-day I am not suggesting that this invalidates
the findings. However, more could be included in the introduction to acknowledge
that much remains hidden in the lives of the students.
--
Richard C. Dunn, Ed.D. (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), Chair, Dept.
of Christian Education, Assist. Prof of Christian Education, TEDS, http://www.gospelcom.net/paceinc/html/sp97b.html
"In
38 studies published since 1990, researchers examined linkages between
children's well-being and their relationships with nonresident fathers.
In general, these studies do not provide strong support for the belief
that visitation with nonresident fathers benefits children.
Of the 24 studies that included data on the frequency of contact, only
10 (42%) found that contact significantly predicted some aspect of children's
well-being. Other studies focused not on contact but on how close children
feel to their fathers. Of these 10 studies, only 3 found significant associations
in the predicted direction. Taken together, these studies suggest that
the frequency of visitation and children's feelings about their fathers
are not good predictors of children's development or adjustment...
"Recent research suggests that nonresident
fathers play an important role in their children's lives to the extent
that they provide authoritative parenting -- especially if this occurs
within the context of cooperative relationships between the parents. Unfortunately,
nonauthoritative fathering within the context of minimal interparental
cooperation is the pattern observed in most families. For this reason,
nonresident fathers may have a difficult time making positive contributions
to their children's development."
--
William Marsiglio, Paul Amato, Randal D Day, Michael E Lamb (2000) Scholarship
on Fatherhood in the 1990s and Beyond Journal of Marriage and Family 62
(4), 1173-1191.
"[M]aternal
custody arrangements appear to be more stable than other arrangements:
children who live with their mother after divorce are more likely to remain
in this arrangement during the first three to four years after separation,
while over half of the children who start out by spending time in each
parent's household or who start out living with their father make at least
one change (Maccoby & Mnookin, 1992)... "
--
WORKING DOCUMENT, THE EFFECTS OF DIVORCE ON CHILDREN, A Selected Literature
Review. Research and Statistics Division. October 1997, WD1998-2e, UNEDITED.
Department of Justice Ministère de la Justice Canada.
"[M]any questions
remain concerning the nature of the relationship between family structure
and child well-being. Overall, this study is intended to address the question,
how do resident parents matter? This question becomes more important in
a society in which children have ever more diverse family experiences and
when significant numbers can be expected to live part of their lives without
both biological parents. I find that parent presence matters a great
deal, but family stability matters even more. The negative consequences
of a parent change, especially a mother change and especially for young
children, are greater than the deficits incurred by living without both
parents in adolescence, if in a stable family... the importance of
parent gender is dependent on the timing of parent presence and transitions.
Parenting is still a gendered activity (Bianchi, 2000; Hofferth et al.,
2002), and this is especially true in early childhood (Yeung et al., 2001).
Although both parents' education, work hours, and incomes influence fathers'
time with children (Yeung et al.), mothers usually provide structure and
order to children's schooling: supervising homework, talking with teachers,
and attending school functions. In fact, it can be said that mothers ??drive
the rhythm of daily life'' for most children."
--
Holly E. Heard (2007) Fathers, Mothers, and Family Structure: Family Trajectories,
Parent Gender, and Adolescent Schooling Journal of Marriage and Family
69 (2), 435-450.
THE FATHERS'
RIGHTS ADVOCATES POINT TO: American
Psychological Association, Report to the U.S. Commission on Child and Family
Welfare, June 14, 1995. This report "summarizes and evaluates
the major research concerning joint custody and its impact on children's
welfare." The report concludes that "The research reviewed
supports the conclusion that joint custody is associated with certain favorable
outcomes for children including father involvement, best interest of the
child for adjustment outcomes, child support, reduced relitigation costs,
and sometimes reduced parental conflict." The APA also noted that
"The need for improved policy to reduce the present adversarial approach
that has resulted in primarily sole maternal custody, limited father involvement
and maladjustment of both children and parents is critical. Increased
mediation, joint custody, and parent education are supported for this policy."
To say there
are "certain favorable outcomes" is a way of ignoring the negatives.
To say that joint custody "is associated with" reduced parent
conflict is to ignore that more amicable parents would be more likely to
voluntarily choose this arrangement (whereas the dataset of sole
custody homes would include, among others, most of the families with severe
abuse issues.) To say that joint custody "increases father involvement"
is circular -- more time equals more time -- and to ignore that this is
not an important factor in child adjustment. After reviewing
all introduced research data and testimony, the U.S. Commission came out
against a presumption for joint custody. The numerous father's
rights websites that reiterate quotes from the unasked-for dissenting "minority
report" of the Commission without mentioning the majority report and
the Commission's actual findings are nothing short of fraudulent.
"Members
of the Children's Rights Council, including Mr. Kuhn and John Guidubaldi,
testified at hearings for "Parenting Our Children: In the Best Interest
of the Nation." [A Report to the President and Congress. Submitted
by the U. S. Commission on Child and Family Welfare, September, 1996] They
proposed the rebuttable presumption for both legal and physical custody.
"Their recommendations, as well as
recommendations made by other fathers' rights supporters, were rejected
by the Commission.
"The Majority Report heard testimony
that rightly invalidated joint custody, including '...Gerald Nissenbaum,
President of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, who recommended
that there be no presumption of any form of custody. Judith Wallerstein,
Founder and Senior Consultant at the Center for the Family in Transition,
told the Commission that she has seen no evidence that any particular form
of custody was uniformly helpful to the post-divorce adjustment of children.
Sally Brush, Director of the Beech Acres' Aring Institute, cautioned the
Commission to avoid making general assumptions about the appropriateness
of particular custody and visitation arrangements in favor of arrangements
that are responsive to the circumstances of individual cases. Katherine
Bartlett, Professor of Law at Duke University, agreed that decisions about
how children are to be raised following a divorce should be tailored to
individual situations.'"
 One
researcher found more cooperation and higher paternal involvement among
families without joint custody, and less paternal involvement and
more problems among families with joint custody: "...In this
article we have noted the effects of the family interaction on children's
behavior in single-parent or reconstructed families. The focus was on the
spousal and parent-child interaction, family boundaries, and the role of
the absent parent in the family...
"After the breakup, 21 families out of
60 agreed on joint custody. Interviews indicated that joint custody does
not guarantee good and healthy development of the child, but the parents'
manner of cooperation seemed to be more important. In groups where parents
had good or fairly good cooperation, only 8 families out of 21 had joint
custody. However, 70% of the children had a physically and psychologically
close interaction with their father and the father's role in the child's
life was very important. Only one third of these children had behavioral
problems. In the families with a lot of ambiguity in the boundaries
and problems caused by the physically absent father... minimal physical
and/or psychological contacts between the father and his child, 13 families
out of 21 had joint custody. Seventy percent of the children in these
families had a psychologically distant interaction with their father, and
two thirds of them had behavioral problems at school."
Anja
Taanila et al. Effects of Family Interaction on the Child's Behavior In
Single-Parent or Reconstructed Families, Family Process (2002) -Vol. 41
Issue 4 557-736
THE FATHERS'
RIGHTS ADVOCATES POINT TO: Wilkinson,
Ronald Richard, "A Comparison of Children's Post-divorce Adjustment
in Sole and Joint Physical Custody Arrangements Matched for Types of Parental
Conflict" Doctoral dissertation, 1992; Texas Woman's University.
This study included "forty boys and girls, ages 8 to 12, in attendance
at selected private secular and parochial schools in a large Southwestern
metropolitan area participated, along with their middle to upper-class
parents." The study compared adjustment of children in joint and sole
physical custody, controlling for level of conflict between parents, to
determine if parental conflict would be more detrimental to children in
joint or sole custody. The author summarized findings as follows:
"Overall, no significant difference between joint and sole physical
custody groups was found."
 This
small and nonrepresentative study looked at a snapshot in time of only
forty families. The joint and sole custody families were "matched
for types of parental conflict." They were selected because they had
similar conflict problems, and it then it was found that in other areas
impacted by conflict (i.e. the well-adjustment of children), the children
were affected similarly.
This study was
limited to its findings about the effects of conflict and does not support
joint custody. Conflict was found to be a problem for children's adjustment.
What the study did not address, however, and which subsequent research
has found, is that joint custody itself exacerbates conflict. There
have been a number of other studies like this from the early 80s on, that
have been touted by fathers rights activists as "research supporting
joint custody." The next listed study (below) has similar limitations.
THE FATHERS'
RIGHTS ADVOCATES POINT TO: Rockwell-Evans,
Kim Evonne, "Parental and Children's Experiences and Adjustment in
Maternal Versus Joint Custody Families " Doctoral dissertation,
1991. North Texas State U. This study compared 21 joint custody and 21
maternal custody families, with children between the ages of 4-15. Results
showed that misbehavior and "acting out" were more common among
sole custody children: "A multiple regression analysis of these
data found children in joint custody families had fewer behavioral adjustment
problems with externalizing behavior than children in mother custody families."
"Regardless of custody arrangement, parents with low self esteem
were more likely to have children with behavioral adjustment problems when
predicting the child's overall behavioral adjustment and internalized behavior."
The above small,
early study did not correct for self-selection of families who voluntarily
chose joint custody because they were more amicable and advantaged to begin
with. This is a flaw in much of the early research.
"Enthusiasm
for joint custody in the early 1980's was fueled by studies of couples
who were highly motivated to 'make it work' (Johnston, 1995). This
enthusiasm has waned in recent years, in part because of social science
findings. For example, Johnston (1995) concluded from her most recent review
that 'highly conflictual parents' (not necessarily violent) had a poor
prognosis for becoming cooperative parents and there is increasing evidence
that children of divorce have more problems because of the conflict between
the parents before the divorce and not because of the divorce itself (Kelly,
1993)."
--
Saunders, Daniel G., Ph.D., Child Custody and Visitation Decisions in Domestic
Violence Cases: Legal Trends, Research Findings, and Recommendations, University
of Michigan School of Social Work August 1998.
"Meta-analysis
supports the notion that the impact of father absence appears to be mediated
by family conflict; father absence in itself may not affect children's
well-being. The family conflict perspective was strongly confirmed
by the data. This perspective holds that children in intact families with
high levels of conflict should have the same well-being problems as children
of divorce, and the data supported this hypothesis."
--
Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being
of children: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 26-46.
"Research
indicates that joint physical custody and frequent child-nonresidential
parent contact have adverse consequences for children in high-conflict
situations. Joint physical custody and frequent child-nonresidential parent
contact do not promote parental cooperation."
--
Washington State Parenting Act Study, Report to the Washington State Gender
and Justice Commission and Domestic Relations Commission, Diane N. Lye,
Ph.D., June, 1999.
"While there
was no clear evidence that either joint or sole custody promotes better
child adjustment (and there were no differences found between effects of
mother-only and father-only custody), a link was consistently found
between frequency of visitation/transitions between parents and maladjustment.
"Children shuffled more frequently
between parents were more exposed to and involved in parental conflict
and aggression and were more often perceived by both parents as being depressed,
withdrawn, uncommunicative, and/or aggressive. These findings, the authors
note, are consistent with the findings of other studies."
--
Johnston, J. R., Kline, M., & Tschann, J. M. (1989). Ongoing postdivorce
conflict in families contesting custody: Do joint custody and frequent
access help? American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 59, 576-592.
Bearing on joint
custody arrangements for the very young child, research by Carol George
and Judth Solomon has found significant negative effects correlated
with overnight visitation and prolonged separations of infants and young
children from their maternal primary caregivers -- with no positive effect
resulting from the extended timeshare with their fathers on these infants'
relationships with their fathers. Although George and Solomon carefully
and sensitively take pains to note the minority exceptions to their findings,
and will be attempting to isolate the reasons why there is no harm in one-third
of the studied cases, the odds don't look so good.
Also take note that
George and Solomon's research is the first and only research
going to the specific question of babies' and young children's mental well-being
in the context of extended overnight visitation, and that there is no
research contra. The psych literature arguments of Michael Lamb and others,
such as Richard Warshak, Joan Kelly, et al. to the effect that babies can
form multiple attachments -- and with a leap of unsupported logic hypothesize
this to mean that overnight visitation and joint custody for babies is
not harmful (although no scientific findings so much as hint that it's
beneficial) -- has not addressed the relative strengths of those multiple
attachments, or the actual effects of such visitation, and primarily focuses
on what is possible in terms of paternal caregiving and roles in
the context of intact homes, not nonresident visitation or joint custody
reality.
"Our findings
from the baseline period played a central role in focusing our questions
about the sequelae of attachment when we saw the children again, approximately
1 year later, at age 2 1/2. We found at baseline significantly more
disorganized/unclassifiable infant-mother attachments than secure and avoidant
attachments among infants who had experienced overnight visitation schedules
(the overnight group) as compared both to infants who saw their father
regularly but did not have overnights (the no-overnight group) and infants
from intact families (the married group.) About two-thirds of the attachments
in the overnight group were judged disorganized/unclassifiable,
in comparison to one-third such classifications in the married group sample.
Although we had anticipated that overnight visitation might be associated
with greater insecurity in infant-mother attachment, we had not predicted
that disorganized attachments would predominate... separated children's
behavior was far more extreme and incoherent than either avoidance or resistance
and fit more easily into Main and Solomon's (1990) classification criteria
for attachment disorganization."
--
Solomon, Judith and Carol George (2003), The Effects on Attachment of Overnight
Visitation in Divorced and Separated Familyies, A Longitudinal Follow-Up.
See: George, Carol and Judith Solomon. OVERNIGHT VISITS AFFECT BABIES'
ATTACHMENT TO SEPARATED OR DIVORCING PARENTS http://www.newswise.com/articles/2003/4/DIVORCE.MLS.html
"Overnight
visitation was neither an advantage nor a disadvantage to infant-father
attachment."
--
Solomon, Judith and Carol George, The Development of attachment in separated
and divorced families: Effects of overnight visitation, parent and couple
variables, Attachment & Human Development VOl.1 No. 1, April
1999
Alternating custody,
e.g. week-on/week-off, was associated with disorganized attachment in 60
percent of infants under 18 months; older children and adults who had endured
this arrangement as youngsters exhibited what the researcher described
as "alarming levels of emotional insecurity and poor ability to regulate
strong emotion."
--
Jennifer McIntosh, "Enduring Conflict in Parental Separation: Pathways
of Impact on Child Development, 9 J. of Family Studies 63, April 2003.
There is some indication
in medical and neuroscientific studies (largely ignored by social and psychological
researchers) that maternal separations can have as-yet-unknown repercussions.
E.g. Wayne Brake, assistant professor of Neuroscience at the University
of California, found that repeatedly separating baby rats from their
mothers caused increased releases of dopamine in their brains and permanently
heightening their sensitiivity to it. It's a possible explanation for
higher percentages of drug addicts populations which as children suffered
interrupted, negligent or otherwise inadequate maternal care.
-- See http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?language=english&type=24119&article_id=218391871&cat=1_2
THE PRO-JOINT CUSTODY CROWD TOUTS:
J. Pearson and N. Thoennes,"Custody
After Divorce: Demographic and Attitudinal Patterns", American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 60, 1990. "Consistent with other
studies of joint and sole custody [citations], our joint legal and residential
noncustodians were decidedly more involved with their children following
divorce than were noncustodians in sole custody arrangements... Lastly,
respondants in joint custody arrangements wre more apt to perceive their
exsopuse as having a good relationship with the children and to report
satisfaction with that person's performance as a parent."
"...conflict between divorcing parents
in our sample did not appear to worsen as a result of the increased demand
for interparental cooperation and communication in joint legal or joint
residential custody arrangements. To the contrary, parents with sole maternal
custody reported the greatest deterioration in the relationships over time."
The elipses in the
above quote are not merely removing redundant or explanatory material.
They remove the researchers' "buts". This is typical pro-joint
custody misrepresentation. In fact the above study found that
joint custody parents reported the lowest satisfaction with the legal agreement
one year after the child custody order. In addition, the researchers
pointed out that:
"Families with
joint custody-joint residential arrangements had parents with the highest
education and household income levels at the time of separation compared
to families with other custody types... these findings reflect the
higher financial cost of maintaining two residences for children and the
more flexible work schedules of high-earning parents." In addition,
most parents with joint custody-joint residential arrangements (70 percent)
also had only one child, compared to about one-third to one-half of parents
with other custody arrangements.
As far as the effect
of custody type on parental cooperation after divorce, the authors
found that most parents opting for joint custody, and particularly joint
residential arrangements, were relatively friendly and cooperative before
and after divorce and thus concluded that postdivorce relationships
were a reflection of predivorce characteristics, not the type of custody
arrangement.
"The authors
conclude that because their sample of joint custody arrangements included
relatively wealthy families with fewer children and cooperative relationships
at the time of divorce, the findings cannot support increased imposition
of joint custody arrangements."
--
Christine Winquist Nord and Laura Spencer Loomis Westat, Inc., ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY: SELECTED CHILD SUPPORT ARTICLES citing Pearson, J. and N.
Thoennes. 1988. "Supporting Children After Divorce: The Influence
of Custody on Support Levels and Payments." Family Law Quarterly,
22(3): 319-339.
--
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 60(2): 233-249., citing Pearson, J.,
and N. Thoennes. 1990. "Custody After Divorce: Demographic and Attitudinal
Patterns." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 60(2): 233-249.
THE FATHERS'
RIGHTS GUYS SAY THAT: Glover,
R. and C. Steele, "Comparing the Effects on the Child of Post-divorce
Parenting Arrangements," Journal of Divorce, Vol. 12, No.
2-3 (1989). This study evaluated children aged 6 to 15 in the areas of
locus of control, self-concept, and family relationships. The children
were divided into three groups: shared custody, maternal custody,
and intact families. Intact family children had averaged higher than
divorced family children on self-concept and father relationships, and
shared custody children averaged higher the sole custody children in these
areas. Intact family children had fewer least-positive responses
in all areas than divorced family children, and shared custody children
had fewer least-positive responses than sole custody children in all areas
except mother relationship. This study indicates that, on average,
a two parent intact family is the best arrangement for children, and a
shared parenting arrangement is better than a sole custody arrangement,
i.e., a two-parent family is better even if parents are divorced.
The above study
found that children in intact homes were the most well-adjusted, and that
joint custody either damages or otherwise is associated with damaged
children's relationships with their mothers. That relationship, and
the wellbeing of the primary residential mother, have been shown by numerous
later studies to be the most important factors affecting overall child
well-being and achievement post-divorce.
"[T]he most
psychologically salient long-term influence on children is their relationship
with the residential parent, not the physical separation of the parents,
although it may be the most obvious and acutely distressing aspect of divorce."
--
Emery, R. (1988). Marriage, divorce, and children's adjustment. Newbury
Park, CA: Sage Publications.
"There are
two key rationales which underlie and promote the concept of joint physical
custody: one comes from a concern for the child, and it holds that equal
or frequent access to both parents is in the best interest of the child
(Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980). The surprising result, however, from
studies of voluntary joint custody arrangements undertaken in the
1970's is that this rationale was disproved: 'Two years after divorce,
children are no better adjusted than children raised in sole custody households.
Despite more access to both parents, joint custody children show neither
less disturbance nor better social adjustment than sole custody children'
(Wallerstein & Blakeslee, 1989, p. 271)."
--
Leff, Renee. Joint Custody: Implications For Women Progress: Family Systems
Resarch and Therapy, 1995, Volume 4, (pp. 29-40). Encino, CA : Phillips
Graduate Institute.
"Studies have
consistently demonstrated that conflict between ex-spouses over custody,
child support, visiting arrangements, and other issues is associated with
poor adjustment among children of divorce (Johnston et al. 1989). It is
probable that conflict and contact are positively associated, given
that contact provides opportunities for conflict to occur. So although
continued contact with non-resident fathers may be beneficial for children
in certain ways, it may also exacerbate conflict between parents, which
is bad for children."
--
Amato, Paul, Contact With Non-custodial Fathers and Children's Wellbeing,
Australian Institute of Family Studies, "Family Matters", No.
36, Dec 1993, pp. 32-34.
"A recent survey
of 9,816 secondary school students in the Netherlands indicates that the
level of well being of children living in single mother families is higher
than that of students living in two parent families with much parental
conflict, the well being of children living in single mother families
with no parental conflict and with a great deal of contact with the departed
father is lower than that of children living in two parent families without
parental conflict and finally, the degree of parental conflict after
divorce is more important for the well being of the children than the degree
of contact with the departed father (Dronkers, 1996)."
--
WORKING DOCUMENT, THE EFFECTS OF DIVORCE ON CHILDREN, A Selected Literature
Review. Research and Statistics Division. October 1997, WD1998-2e, UNEDITED.
Department of Justice Ministère de la Justice Canada, canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/rs/rep/wd98-2a-e.pdf
THE FRs
CLAIM: Ilfeld,
Holly Zingale "Children's perceptions of their relationship with their
fathers in three family constellations: mother sole custody, joint custody
and intact families" Doctoral
dissertation, U. of California, Davis 1989. This study evaluated children's
perceptions of their fathers at least four years post-divorce, comparing
joint custody, sole custody and intact families. The subjects were 43 latency-age
children: 11 from maternal custody families, 14 from joint custody families
and 18 controls from intact homes. Results: "There was a significant
difference in the perceptions of children in sole and joint custody. Joint
custody children reported spending more time with their fathers in childcentered
activities, activities which were considered pleasurable and important
to children. " And: "No differences were found as a function
of custody arrangements in children's perceptions of emotional closeness
to the father, acceptance by the father, or fathers's potency or activity."
[emphasis added.]
However, the above
study used a ridiculously tiny sample of 14 children who reported spending
more time with their fathers in joint custody arrangements. And that was
the "significant difference" touted. It bears note, however,
that the type of custody arrangement had no effect on children's
perceptions of their emotional closeness with their fathers. If anything,
in context with other research, this study would bode against joint
custody; the numbers of large-scale studies that have found negatives in
joint custody tilt these scales.
"Contrary to
the researchers' hypotheses, the study results indicate that children
in joint custody arrangements exhibit less support and affection toward
their parents than children in sole custody.
"Also, custody type had no significant
effect on parent-to-child support and affection. Consistent with the researchers'
hypotheses, the results also suggested that when parents have frequent
disagreements, the parent-child relationship also experiences high levels
of disagreement. The authors discuss the unexpected findings and conclude
that more research is needed before joint custody arrangements are definitively
deemed beneficial for children."
--
Christine Winquist Nord and Laura Spencer Loomis Westat, Inc., ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY: SELECTED CHILD SUPPORT ARTICLES citing Donnelly, Denise and
David Finkelhor. 1992. "Does Equality in Custody Arrangement Improve
the Parent-Child Relationship?" Journal of Marriage and the Family
54(4): 837-845.
THE JOINT CUSTODY ADVOCATES CLAIM:
Lerman, Isabel A. "Adjustment of latency age children in joint and
single custody arrangements" California School of Professional
Psychology, San Diego, 1989 This study evaluated 90 children, aged 7 to
12, divided equally among maternal, joint legal,and joint physical custody
groups.
Results showed negative effects for sole custody:
"Single custody subjects evidenced greater self-hate and perceived
more rejection from their fathers than joint physical custody subjects."
Conflict between parents was found to be a significant factor, which may
explain the better adjustment for joint physical custody children: "Degree
of interparental conflict was a significant predictor of child self-hate.
Higher conflict was associated with greater self-hate; lower conflict was
associated with lower self-hate." "Higher father-child contact
was associated with better adjustment, lower self-hate, and lower perceived
rejection from father; lower father-child contact was associated with poorer
adjustment, higher self-hate, and higher perceived rejection from father.
"
The above-cited
study did not control for amicable self-selection of joint custody families,
or for pre-existing higher conflict resulting in sole custody families.
Because of that, its findings on child adjustment have not been replicated
by later studies with appropriate controls. And in light of that, this
study does not support the imposition of joint custody. The study found
conflict to be a significant problem, and subsequent studies have
found that imposed joint custody exacerbates that conflict. In addition,
the study's assumptions regarding the benefits of father-child contact
have not been supported by the findings of subsequent, large-scale studies.
"In a large
California study, Maccoby and Mnookin (1992) found that joint custody is
sometimes used to resolve custody disputes. They found that joint custody
was awarded in about one-third of cases in which mothers and fathers had
each sought sole custody. And the more legal conflict that occurred between
parents, the more likely joint custody was to be awarded. Three and
one-half years after separation, these couples were experiencing considerably
more conflict and less co-operative parenting than were couples for whom
joint custody was the first choice of each parent."
--
Amato, Paul R., Contact With Non-custodial Fathers and Children's Wellbeing,
"Family Matters", No. 36, Dec, pp. 32-34, Australian Institute
of Family Studies, Melbourne, Australia.
In a study of twenty-four
highly motivated California families who pioneered joint custody on their
own prior to the law's express authorization of joint custody, while
most children adjusted, twenty-five percent were confused and unhappy because
of the demands of living in two households and remained stressed by the
living arrangements.
--
Susan Steinman, The Experience of Children in a Joint Custody Arrangement:
A Report of a Study, 51 Am. J. of Orthopsychiatry 403 (1981).
From another study
frequently touted by the fathers' rights advocates as supporting joint
custody: "The author cautions courts... against making joint custody
mandatory, naming several situations in which such a blanket decision would
be deleterious. She advocates sole custody in cases of spousal abuse, remarriage,
and long distance relocations."
--
Luepnitz, D.A. (1986). A comparison of maternal, paternal, and joint custody:
Understanding the varieties of post-divorce family life. Journal of Divorce,
9(3), 1-11.
Fewer child support
awards are ordered in joint physical custody cases; there is a greater
income differential between fathers' households and mothers' households
post-divorce in joint custody situations than in sole custody situations;
and fathers with joint custody are more likely to have higher incomes relative
to their ex-wives than fathers in situations of maternal custody.
--
Maccoby, E. E., & Mnookin, R. H. (1992). DIVIDING THE CHILD: SOCIAL
AND LEGAL DILEMMAS OF CUSTODY. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Let's not play word-games:
calling it "custody" or "parenting time" instead of
"visitation" doesn't change the characterization of the "time-share".
It doesn't alter who takes primary responsibility for the children's activities.
It doesn't alter who purchases the new shoes. It diminishes child support
awards and increases erstwhile noncustodial parents' legal rights. It alters
the relationship between the parents. These are irrelevant to the experience
of the children in the situation, which at best -- assuming conflict is
not exacerbated -- is the same thing: time. "The majority of studies
based on large national surveys in the United States, found little association
between father visitation and children's well-being."
--
CUSTODY AND ACCESS: AN N.A.W.L. BRIEF to the Special Joint Committee on
Child Custody and Access, March 1998, citing to Valerie King, "Variation
in the Consequences of Non-Resident Father Involvement for Child's Well-being,"
(1994), 56 Journal of Marriage and the Family: 963-972; Denise Donnelly
and David Finkelhorn, "Does Equality in Custody Arrangement Improve
the Parent-Child Relationship?" (1992), 54 Journal of Marriage and
the Family: 837, 842-844; C. James Richardson, Divorce and Family Mediation
Research Study in Three Canadian Cities, supra., 31-32; Federal/Provincial/Territorial
Family Law Committee, supra., 29-31. Also see: Carol Smart and Bren Neale,
"Arguments Against Virtue: Must Contact Be Enforced?" [1997]
27 Family Law: 332.
In
what they speciously characterize as Extreme
Situations, THE MALE SUPREMACISTS CLAIM:
In situations with high levels of conflict,
mental illness, or domestic violence, joint physical custody is no better
(and no worse) than sole custody. Surviving the Breakup, J. Wallerstein
and J. Kelly; Second Chances, J. Wallerstein and S. Blakeslee; and
other publications.
Judith Wallerstein and colleagues have produced
many publications on a 20+ year study of 184 families that had been referred
to her clinic for therapy. The parents were predominantly mentally ill,
with approximately half the men and half the women "moderately disturbed
or frequently incapacitated by disabling neuroses and addictions,"
including some who were "sometimes suicidal." An additional 20%
of the women and 15% of the men were categorized as "severely disturbed."
Approximately one third of the sample were
considered to have "adequate psychological functioning" before
divorce. Although there was a significant level of attrition, with families
dropping out of the study when problems were resolved, some conclusions
emerged from the remaining families. Children in joint custody situations
did no better than those in sole custody, indicating that parents must
be reasonably psychologically healthy for shared parenting to benefit children.
 To
say that children in high conflict joint custody situations do no better
than children in high conflict sole custody situations, is to put a specious
spin on the research. Wallerstein repeatedly has stated that her findings
do not support the imposition of joint custody. Even Joan Kelly repeatedly
has written that there is no formula, and that joint custody is not appropriate
in highly conflicted situations. It's not merely a crapshoot. Contrary
to the posturing in the last sentence of the pro-joint custody advocates,
above, children in the more optimal joint custody situations (the
ones that endured) did no better than those in sole custody (a group which
commenced containing the most problematic cases and also which accrued
those thoroughly impossible joint custody situations that failed), and
so, if all ended up "no different," then those who remained in
their joint custody situations were unnecessarily worse off than they had
to have been. What does Wallerstein really say?
"The widespread
policy of court-ordered visits with the non-custodial parent is based on
the court's belief that such visits promote the child's best interests
by strengthening an affectionate bond between father and child. This is
an unsupported proposition. There is no research evidence that either the
frequency or the amount of contact between non-custodial parent and child
is related to good outcome in the child. It is also the assumption of many
judges that visiting will increase the father's willingness to provide
economic support. This too is unsupported."
--
Wallerstein, J.S. (1998). Child of divorce: A society in search of policy,
in Mary Ann Mason, Aarlene Skolnick & Stephen D. Sugarman, (Eds.),
All our families: New policies for a new century. New York: Oxford University
Press.
The regularity
and predictability of visits is more important than frequency of visits."
--
CUSTODY AND ACCESS: AN N.A.W.L. BRIEF to the Special Joint Committee on
Child Custody and Access, March 1998, citing to M.B. Isaacs, B. Montalvo,
and D. Abelsohn, The Difficult Divorce: Therapy for Children and Families.
New York, NY: Basic Books, 1986, p. 273; Judith S. Wallerstein and Sandra
Blakeslee, Second Chances: Men, Women and Children A Decade after Divorce.
New York, NY: Ticknor and Fields, 1989, p. 238.
"[W]e
found that children's contact with non-custodial fathers was higher when
parents were well educated, older, and earned a high income. We also found
that the marriage of the mother was related to lower contact. Furthermore,
contact was positively related to interparental conflict, which suggests
that contact provides opportunities for conflict to occur... Policy makers
and practitioners who work with divorced families should consider the possibility
that maintaining or increasing the level of contact between non-resident
parents and children may not always be in children's best interest."
--
Amato, Paul R., Contact With Non-custodial Fathers and Children's Wellbeing,
"Family Matters", No. 36, Dec, pp. 32-34, Australian Institute
of Family Studies, Melbourne, Australia.
THE FATHERS'
JOINT CUSTODY LOBBY POINTS TO: Johnston,
Janet R., Marsha Kline, and Jeanne M. Tschann,
"Ongoing Postdivorce Conflict: Effects on Children of Joint Custody
and Frequent Access," American Journal
of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Oct. 1989).
Johnston et al. studied 100 low income families
involved in ongoing custody disputes that included frequent verbal and
physical aggression. Approximately one third of the children were in joint
physical custody arrangements averaging 12 days per month with the less-seen
parent, with the others in either mother or father sole physical custody
averaging 4 days a month with the less-seen parent. The study found that
"there was no clear evidence that children are better adjusted in
either custody type", and that "mean scores for the Child Behavior
Checklist lie within the normal range for all custody types." Also,
"there was no evidence that the clinically disturbed children were
more likely to be in joint than in sole custody." However, the study
did find that more frequent contact between parents in either joint or
sole custody arrangements was "associated with more emotional and
behavioral problems in the children."
Johnston's study indicates that shared parenting
may not reduce disputes between parents in extreme high-conflict situations,
but also shows that sole custody does not protect children from the effects
of conflict between parents. In high conflict situations, it is probably
better to reduce interaction between parents. For example, parents can
pick up children from school instead of from the other parent's house.
The study did find one significant benefit
from shared parenting even in these cases: "Only one parent with joint
custody ceased contact with her child, whereas 12 parents of sole custody
children 'dropped out'." Thus joint custody does appear to protect
children from the complete loss of a parent, even in high conflict situations.
Janet Johnson and
her colleagues compared children in court-ordered joint custody with children
in sole-custody homes. In both situations, the parents were in "entrenched
conflict." The study showed that under these circumstances
frequent shuttling between both parents in joint custody was "linked
to more troubled emotional problems" in children than the sole-custody
arrangement. Additionally, Johnston, Kline and Tschann found that children
in conflictual situations who have more frequent access to both parents
are more emotionally troubled and behaviourally disturbed than those with
less access.
But "conflict"
does not necessarily mean "confrontation" or "violence".
(The suggestion in the father's rights writeup, above that conflict can
be solved by, e.g. merely having the parents exchange children at school
is an example of commonly held misperceptions about "conflict.")
These results -- that children were more troubled and disturbed the more
frequent the access -- held true regardless of whether inter-parental aggression
was present (note that all families in this study were involved
in custody and access disputes).
"Conflict"
or "entrenched conflict" does not necessarily mean physical violence.
Johnston, 1998, described it as a relationship marked by SOME or all of
the following parental behaviors: high degrees of anger and distrust; incidents
of verbal abuse; intermittent physical aggression; ongoing difficulty in
communicating about the children' ongoing difficulty cooperating in the
care of the children; sabotage of children's relationship with the other
parent. These behaviors continue post-separation, often coupled with high
rates of litigation and relitigation, covert and overt hostility, an ongoing
negative attitude about the ex-spouse, avoidance, and unsubstantiated allegations
about the ex-partner's behavior.
Additionally,
the researchers reported that "The more contact children have with
two warring parents, the more emotionally troubled the youngsters were
and the more behavior problems they had. These children were living in
a constant state of anxiety and tension, constantly moving between two
enemy camps."
"Do children
suffer when they aren't aware of their parents' poor marital relations?
...conflict is bad for children, and so researchers suggest that if parents
contain their conflict, their children should be as well off as children
in healthy intact families. But, at the same time, theory suggests indirect
effects of parental conflict for child well-being. Evidence indicates that
unsupportive and high conflict marriages are associated with lower quality
parenting, and that poor parenting in turn impacts child well-being. This
suggests to me that children can still be at the receiving end of conflict,
even if they don't witness this conflict. Yet, there is almost no evaluation
of this possibility. ...the conflict parents hide from their children
can still have negative ramifications for their children."
--
Jekielek, Susan Marie. "Does the Conflict Parents Hide Affect Their
Children?" Presented: New York, NY, Population Association of America
Annual Meetings, March 1999 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 ID Number:
3704
"Real joint
custody is hard to sustain, and moderate levels of visitation do not appear
to help children much. What does seem to help is a close father-child
relationship, which depends on the parents' ability to minimize conflict
after divorce."
--
Sara L. McLanahan, LIFE WITHOUT FATHER: WHAT HAPPENS TO THE CHILDREN? Center
for Research on Child Wellbeing Working Paper #01-21, Princeton University
August 15, 2001.
[But
note, from the father's rights own touted research above, frequency of
time spent with fathers does not affect the closeness of the father-child
relationship. -- Adolescents After Divorce, Buchanan, C., Maccoby, and
Dornbusch, Harvard University Press,1996.]
"Studies
have consistently demonstrated that conflict between ex-spouses over custody,
child support, visiting arrangements, and other issues is associated with
poor adjustment among children of divorce (Johnston et al. 1989). It is
probable that conflict and contact are positively associated, given
that contact provides opportunities for conflict to occur. So although
continued contact with non-resident fathers may be beneficial for children
in certain ways, it may also exacerbate conflict between parents, which
is bad for children.
"The end result would be one in which
continuing hostility between parents cancels out the benefits that might
otherwise follow from a high level of contact with the non-custodial father.
Two American studies provide support for this reasoning. Hetherington,
Cox, and Cox (1982) reported that father visitation was associated with
positive child adjustment when interparental conflict was low but was associated
with decrements in children's adjustment when interparental conflict was
high. Similarly, Healy, Malley, and Stewart (1990) found that father visitation
was associated with high child self-esteem when legal conflict was low,
but not when legal conflict was high."
--
Amato, Paul, Contact With Non-custodial Fathers and Children's Wellbeing,
Australian Institute of Family Studies, above..
THE JOINT CUSTODY PROPONENTS WEASEL
regarding Joint Legal Custody:
Although not as beneficial to children
as equal shared parenting (joint physical custody), joint legal custody
helps to some extent. The main benefits of joint legal custody are in reducing
visitation interference and improving child support compliance. ...
The claim is
flat-out prevarication, since neither joint physical custody nor frequency
of visitation has been shown to be beneficial to children. Nor has
increased child support payment compliance (but one way of helping
a residential household achieve the financial stability that has
been shown to be important) been shown to result from custody arrangement
or increased visitation. (In fact, increased visitation and joint custody
both decrease the amount of child support payable in the first place: e.g.
100% compliance with a 50% obligation, is no better in the end result than
50% compliance with a 100% obligation.)
"While it would
be a seemingly obvious proposition to most of us, that fathers' consistent
and substantial involvement in child care would benefit the child, this
appears to have not been well established. The relationship between paternal
involvement and children's well-being seems to be mediated by a number
of other conditions that involve the father, the mother, and the child.
In other words, increased paternal involvement does not automatically
result in improved child outcomes. Nor is it clear whether the father's
involvement provides unique nurturance that can not be as readily provided
by substitute caregivers."
--
THE MEANING OF FATHERHOOD Koray Tanfer, Battelle Memorial Institute; Frank
Mott, Ohio State University; Prepared for NICHD Workshop "Improving
Data on Male Fertility and Family Formation" at the Urban Institute,
Washington, D.C., January 16-17, 1997, http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/fathers/cfsforum/apenc.htm
[I
must point out that it should be a "seemingly obvious proposition"
that children do best in one stable, permanent, stress-free and
financially secure child-centered home, with one (or two) authoritative,
loving parents (married or not), preferably well-educated and well-adjusted,
whose focus is on selflessly and cooperatively contributing to and optimizing
the child's environment and opportunies --
and that it is irrelevant, except to the extent on a case-by-case basis
that this indirectly impacts those real factors that affect child wellbeing,
whether the parental captain at the helm of this ship consists of one or
two parents, biological parents, or even heterosexual parents. -- liz]
"Among the
highest-quality studies reviewed here (Argys et al. 1998; Baydar 1988;
Furstenberg et al. 1987; Guidlabaldi et al. 1987; King 1994a,b), only
one finds higher child well-being among children who have more contact
with their nonresidential father; four find no impact of the level of contact
with the nonresidential father; and one finds reduced well-being among
children who have more contact with their nonresidential father."
(In 1988, Baydar reported reduced emotional well-being among children who
had frequent contact with nonresidential fathers. This was a large, national
longitudinal study that included appropriate controls.)
--
Washington State Parenting Act Study, Report to the Washington State Gender
and Justice Commission and Domestic Relations Commission, Diane N. Lye,
Ph.D., June, 1999,http://www.wa.gov/courts/parent/chap4.htm
Joint custody
results in lower child support awards, which fathers are no more likely
to pay than when mothers have sole custody.
--
Nancy D. Polikoff, "Joint Custody: Only by Agreement of the Parties,"
8 Woman's Advoc. 1,3 (1987).
"[A]lmost no
studies have examined paternal adjustment on children and no studies have
examined the 'effect and interaction between both parents' adjustment,
conflict, time with both parents, and residence' on children (p.37). With
respect to access and closeness to the noncustodial parent on children's
adjustment, the evidence is mixed or inconclusive. Finally, custody status
by itself does not affect children's adjustment following a divorce."
--
Christine Winquist Nord and Laura Spencer Loomis Westat, Inc., ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY: SELECTED CHILD SUPPORT ARTICLES citing Kelly, Joan B. 1993.
"Current Research on Children's Postdivorce Adjustment: No Simple
Answers." Family and Conciliation Courts Review 31(1): 29-49.
"The
cumulative body of social science research does not support the presumption
that frequent and continuing access by both parents lies at the core of
the child's best interest.
"What counts is not the quantity
of time, but the extent to which the access parent and child have a relationship
in which the child feels valued. The regularity and predictability of visits
is more important than frequency of visits."
--
M.B. Isaacs, B. Montalvo and D. Abelsohn, The Difficult Divorce: Therapy
for Children and Families, New York: Basic Books, 1986.
THE FATHERS'
RIGHTS ADVOCATES and the forensic parenting evaluators and who
indulge them (expediently forming their opinions from secondary sources
and "literature") CLAIM:...Joint
legal custody has been consistently linked with more parental involvement,
higher child support compliance, and less conflict between parents. Until
recently, however, it was not clear whether these benefits occurred as
a result of joint legal custody, or simply because more cooperative
parents chose joint custody in the first place. The 1997 study by
Seltzer provides strong evidence for a cause and effect relationship between
joint legal custody and the benefits associated with it.
Seltzer, J. "Father by Law:
Effects of Joint Legal Custody on Non-residential Fathers Involvement with
Children," NSFH Paper No. 75, Feb., 1997, U. of Wisconsin-Madison,
http://ssc.wisc.edu/cde/nsfhwp/home.htm
Seltzer used data from the National Survey
of Families and Households, a survey of over 13,000 families that collected
data in two waves, 1987-88 and 1992-94. Because the study included data
on the quality of family relationships, it was possible to study the effects
of joint legal custody while controlling from pre-separation family relationships
by analyzing data on families that had separated between the survey waves.
Seltzer concluded that "Controlling for
the quality of family relationships before separation and socioeconomic
status, fathers with joint legal custody see their children more frequently,
have more overnight visits, and pay more child support than fathers in
families in which mothers have sole legal custody." She suggests that
joint legal custody helps reduce visitation denial: "By clarifying
that divorced fathers are 'by law' still fathers, parents' negotiations
about fathers' participation in child rearing after divorce may shift from
trying to resolve whether fathers will be involved in child rearing
to the matter of how fathers will be involved." [emphasis in
original]
Exploratory hypotheses
and suppositions do not constitute research findings. It also should be
pointed out that fathers with joint legal custody as a group also have
court orders granting them more visitation time. The reasoning is densely
circular. Seltzer's later research led her to say in effect: whoa, hold
on. Regardless of whether or not increased child support enforcement
leads to more visitation time or more visitation time leads to increased
child support compliance, the net effect is more conflict:
"The positive
effect of the amount of child support payments on conflict supports concern
that strict enforcement of child support may increase children's exposure
to conflict between parents... [P]olicy makers must consider the potential
harm to children's well-being of increased exposure to conflict against
the benefits of increasing fathers' child support contributions, and
hence children's economic security."
--
Seltzer, Judith A., Sara McLanahan and Thomas L. Hanson, "Will Child
Support Enforcement Increase Father-Child Contact and Parental Conflict
after Separation?" NETWORK ON THE FAMILY AND THE ECONOMY
And from prior research
by the same sociologist, in which she formed an opinion the later works
did not overrule: Nearly 75% of the cases reviewed placed sole physical
and legal custody with the mother. Another 15% arranged for joint legal
custody, with physical custody held by the mother. Incidence of joint custody
rose with higher combined family income. Where physical custody lies with
the father, children tend to be older. Additional analyses revealed disparate
factors influencing decisions about legal, physical, and joint custody,
and a decided lack of consistency among these arrangements... The authors
question the wisdom of expanding joint custody in the absence of consistent
information regarding both the causes and effects of these arrangements.
--
Seltzer, J. A. (1990). Legal and physical custody arrangements in recent
divorces. Social Science Quarterly, 71(2), 250-263
"Research findings
on the association between frequency of father-child contact and child
outcomes are mixed. In general, large-scale studies find no relationship
between father-child contact and child outcomes, such as cognitive
development, academic achievement, behavior, and perceptions of academic
competence and self-worth."
--
CHILD TRENDS: SUMMARY OF KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS, citing Baydar, N. &
Brooks-Gunn, J. (1994). The dynamics of child support and its consequences
for children. In I. Garfinkel, S. S. McLanahan, P. K. Robins, (Eds.), Child
Support and Child Well-Being (pp. 257-279). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute
Press; Furstenberg, F. F., Morgan, S. P. & Allison, P.A. (1987). Paternal
participation and children's well-being after marital dissolution. American
Sociological Review, 52, 695-701; King, V. (1994). Nonresident father involvement
and child well-being. Journal of Family Issues, 15, 78-96; McLanahan, S.S.,
Seltzer, J.A., Hanson, T.L., & Thomson, E. (1994). Child support enforcement
and child well-being: Greater security or greater conflict? In I. Garfinkel,
S. McLanahan, & P.K. Robbins (Eds.), Child Support and Child Well-being.
(pp.239-254). Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute Press.
"[N]umerous
factors influence the amount of time fathers spend caring for their children.
These factors include individual, family, larger system, and cultural influences...
fathers' involvement with their children is a complex reality with multiple
levels of influence."
--
Parke, R. D. (1996). What determines fathers' involvement? In Fatherhood
(pp. 73-118). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Joint custody
does not result in the father spending more time with the children.
(Primary caregiving often is taken over by substitute mothers, and joint
custody frequently devolves over time into arrangements that in effect
parrot traditional sole mother custody and visitation.)
THE SHARED PARENTING PROPONENTS SAY:
Gunnoe, M.L., and S.L. Braver, "The
Effects of Joint Legal Custody on Family Functioning, Controlling for Factors
that Predispose a joint award," Child Development.
This study evaluated 273 families, controlling for 28 variables
that influence a predisposition to agree on joint legal custody. Controlling
for these factors, children in joint legal custody families had more time
with their fathers and fewer adjustment an behavior problems. The
custody type, however, did not affect the adjustment of fathers or mothers
post-divorce, conflict between ex-spouses, or child support compliance.
"Joint custody
parents... reported the lowest satisfaction with the legal agreement one
year after the child custody order."
--
Christine Winquist Nord and Laura Spencer Loomis Westat, Inc., ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY: SELECTED CHILD SUPPORT ARTICLES citing Pearson, J., and N.
Thoennes. 1990. "Custody After Divorce: Demographic and Attitudinal
Patterns." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 60(2): 233-249.
"[Five] factors
influence the level of fathers' involvement: child characteristics and
paternal sociodemographic characteristics; motivation; skills and self-confidence;
social supports; and institutional factors or practices.... no single factor
emerges as the most important, but all show valid degrees of influence
on fathers' involvement." The authors warn that much of the research
on "father involvement" is flawed because it fails to account
for the quality of that involvement. By the measures used in many studies,
a frequent child beater would have a high score of "father involvement."
--
Pleck, J. H. (1997). Paternal involvement: Levels, sources, and consequences.
In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (3rd ed.,
pp. 66-104). New York: Wiley.
In a study of unwed
adolescent mothers, "while over 80% of mothers reported that their
children's fathers had at least some contact with the children, approximately
80% of mothers indicate that the fathers themselves had some sort of emotional
or behavioral problem... While their father's level of involvement did
not have an effect on the children at first, between the end of the second
and third years, children's problem behaviors were directly related
to fathers' involvement"
--
Ross Leadbeater, B. J., Way, N., & Raden, A. (1996). Why not marry
your baby's father? Answers from African American and Hispanic adolescent
mothers. In B. J. Ross Leadbeater & N. Way (Eds.), Urban girls: Resisting
stereotypes, creating identities (pp.193-207). New York: New York University
Press.
SHARED PARENTING ADVOCATES FREQUENTLY CITE TO BRAVER
(who spun his own anti-relocation study): Sanford
Braver,"Determining the Impact of Joint Custody on Divorcing Families",
Study consisted of 378 families; some with unmatched partners, in various
custody arrangements.
"...Sharlene Wolchik, Iwrin Sandler and
I found in 1985 that children in joint custody had higher feelings of self-worth
than children in sole maternal custody."
"Our results showed considerable benefits
for joint custody, even when equating predisposing factors. After this
adjustment, children in joint custody were found to be significantly better
adjusted, and to exhibit less antisocial and implulsive behavior than sole
custody families. Fathers also visited more, and were more involved in
child care, as well as more satisfied with the divorce settlement. Mothers,
however, were significantly less satisfied with the custody arrangements
in joint custody families."
The above comment
is deliberately misleading to the extent it implies physical custody or
increased timeshare. This older study was limited to joint legal
custody, and likely reflected the more amicable pre-custody relatioship
of the parents, because nothing about the parents legal authority bears
on the parent-child relationship. Mothers were "significantly less
satisfied with the custody arrangements."
This is what Braver
actually concluded in his study about joint physical custody, quoted
from his book Divorced Dads: "...there
is simply not enough evidence available at present to substantiate routinely
imposing joint residential custody ...the limited analyses other researchers
have performed don't strongly recommend it be imposed either."
--
page 223 in Divorced Dads.
"Sanford Braver
is Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. His recent book,
Divorced Dads, is a major critique of much of the earlier research
on post-divorce parenting. The book presents information from a four-year
plus study of 271 mothers and 340 fathers, from 378 different families,
who filed for divorce in an Arizona county in 1986. Braver presents information
suggesting that many popular beliefs about divorced fathers are inaccurate
and are based on faulty research and reasoning. Braver is a staunch advocate
of continued father involvement in children's lives after divorce, and
of joint legal custody as a tool to promote father involvement.
"However, Braver's
study does not include measures of child well-being post-divorce and does
not directly address the issue of whether higher levels of paternal involvement
benefit children. Braver's research also does not speak directly to
joint physical custody, as he only assessed joint legal custody. However,
like all the other divorce experts, Braver concludes that joint physical
custody (50/50 or shared parenting) is rarely in the best interests of
children and that a presumption of shared parenting would be poor public
policy."
--
Washington State Parenting Act Study, Report to the Washington State Gender
and Justice Commission and Domestic Relations Commission, Diane N. Lye,
Ph.D., June, 1999, http://www.wa.gov/courts/parent/chap4.htm
Because of the intense
spin-meistering and noisy dump of tons of words into the public discourse,
"Judges tend to see contact with the non-resident parent (typically
the father) as crucial for a child's well-being." But it's not. "Effectively,
a presumption that access was in a child's best interests was established
in England and Australia (Rhoades et al 2000; Kaganas, 2000). Attention
to other potential risks to children's well-being and safety, and the well-being
and safety of residential mothers - and notably abuse - have therefore
been ignored or downgraded. (Smart & Neale 1997 etc.) As a result,
mothers and children were expected to participate in contact arrangements
despite the violence or abuse perpetrated by non-resident fathers (Hester
& Radford 1996; Kaganas & Sclater 2000; Rhoades, Graycar &
Harrison 2000; Smart & Neale 1997). Survivors of domestic violence
reported a particularly difficult time accessing the court system and securing
plans that adequately protected their safety (Lye & Wechsler, 2000)."
--
Ad Hoc Child Custody and Access Research Committee, May 28, 2001, http://www.ywca.ca/articles/familylawfacts.htm
"Although
three-quarters of parenting plans in Washington State specified joint decision-making,
joint decision-making did not work well, and can promote conflict.
(Lye & Wechsler, 2000) In fact, Dunne et al. (2000) found that parental
conflict appeared to rise under the new law. The apparently benign
idea of shared parenting has achieved a level of common sense knowledge
that is contradicted by the social science research in the field. Research
shows that continuing contact with each parent is only one factor associated
with positive outcomes for children of divorce. Some researchers have called
into question the assumption that maintenance of a relationship with an
access father is the most important factor in positive outcomes for children.
--
Eillis, J.W., "Caught in the middle: Protecting the children of high
conflict divorce," (1996) N.Y.U. Review of Legal Social Change 22,
259-61; Silverstein, L. B. Auerbach, C.F., "Deconstructing the Essential
Father," 54:6 American Psychologist 397 (1999); quoted in Ad Hoc
Child Custody and Access Research Committee, May 28, 2001, http://www.ywca.ca/articles/familylawfacts.htm
Most children in
court-imposed joint custody do poorly.
--
Gina Kolata, "The Children of Divorce: Joint Custody is Found to Offer
Little Benefit," N.Y. Times, Mar. 31, l988 at B13;
Children in joint
custody are more disturbed and depressed than children in sole custody,
even when the parents choose joint custody voluntarily.
Notwithstanding
older research datasets of joint custody parents that included those individuals
who on balance were far more able and likely to cooperate, compared with
sole custody datasets that included the most egregiously abusive situations,
joint custody relitigation rates have been found to be no better than sole
custody relitigation rates. In other words, they are higher in an absolute
sense. More recent research confirms that joint custody results in higher
relitigation rates.
--
See Beverly W. Ferreiro, "Presumption of Joint Custody: A Family Policy
Dilemma," 39 Fam. Rel. 420 (1990); and Gerald W. Hardcastle, "Joint
Custody: A Family Court Judge's Perspective," 32 Fam. L.Q. 201 (1998);
as well as the numerous difficult "moveaway" cases.
--
Brinig, Margaret (2005). Does
Parental Autonomy Require Equal Custody at Divorce? The University
of Iowa College of Law, University of Iowa Legal Studies Research Paper
Number 05-13 April, 2005
Children suffer
more in joint custody than in sole custody when there is parental conflict.
--
See Joyce A. Arditti and Debra Madden-Derdich, "Joint and Sole Custody
Mothers: Implications for Research and Practice," 78 Fam. Soc'y: J.
Contemp. Hum. Services 36 (1997); Jana B. Singer and William L. Reynolds,
"A Dissent on Joint Custody," 47 Md. Law Rev.497 (1988); and
Gerald W. Hardcastle, "Joint Custody: A Family Court Judge's Perspective,"
32 Fam. L.Q. 201 (1998).
Joint custody
is especially harmful when one of the parents is abusive, rigid, manipulative,
or angry that he is divorced.
Not infrequently,
joint custody orders effect a situation in which children are divided up
like chattel, without regard for common sense, let alone the children's
well-being.
--
See, e.g. the discussion of Fisher v. Fisher in Barbara Bennett
Woodhouse, "Child Custody in the Age of Children's Rights: The Search
for a Just and Workable Standard," 33 Fam. L.Q. 815 (1999).
The
following factors are the only ones that consistently have been related
to positive child adjustment post divorce and are consistent with the findings
of all relevant research:
1. Positive "custodial
parent" adjustment (i.e. maternal adjustment -- most "custodial
parents" in the research were not androgynous parent units but mothers),
which is associated with effective parenting;
2. A positive relationship
between the "custodial parent" (i.e. mother) and child; and
3. A low level of
conflict between parents (more likely when post-divorce parenting arrangements
mirror the patterns set in the family prior to the divorce.)
--
Gindes, Marion. The
Psychological Effects of Relocation for Children of Divorce, AAML Journal,
Vol. 15 (1998), pp. 144-145).
The following
factors are the only ones that consistently have been related to positive
effects of father involvement, and are consistent with the findings of
all relevant research:
1. How the child
perceives the father to feel about the child (which is not related to how
much time he spends with the child, and not necessarily related to how
the child feels about him, a factor that is comparatively insignificant
vis a vis the child's well-being); and
2. A father who
emotionally cares for, financially supports, respects, is involved with,
takes some of the work load off of, and generally makes life easier, happier
and less stressful for... his children's mother.
"Nicolas has
lived in joint custody for the past eight years, and you would think he
would be used to it by now. He is not. His emotional preparation begins
a week or so before he flies to visit his mother. (Nicolas lives with me
when he is in school.) He becomes, to varying degrees, anxious, lethargic,
somber and withdrawn from his friends... Though he would never want to
have to choose between his parents, neither would he choose joint custody.
"And neither would I choose it for
him if I had the chance to make the decision again... His mother and
I should have agreed on sole custody. If we had not been able to agree,
it should have been imposed. Though it would have been devastating for
the one of us who lost custody of our son, I am convinced that Nicolas's
childhood would have been easier."
--
David Sheff, If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Dad's House, N.Y. Times Mag.,
Mar. 26, 1995, at 65.
"Our focus
was on children's experiences and this gave us the opportunity to understand
what it might be like to live one's life across two households over considerable
periods of time. We were able to appreciate the costs for children... Even
where children had good relationships with both their parents... there
were costs for them. They looked forward to a time when they could stop
living like nomads... even in happier circumstances we found that they
could feel too guilty or too responsible for their parents' feelings to
broach the subject... One young woman described to us her unhappy experiences...
she described how she felt when she arrived at university
'It was the nicest
thing. Like for once I had everything in one room like all my clothes in
one room. I was settled for the first time in like ten years, I actually
felt settled. I actually felt like I was just settled do you know what
I mean? ...Not living out of a bag. I lived out of bags for ten years.
I've never, I just used to. I lived out of four carrier bags do you know
what I mean? .... I would not want to put any kid of mine through what
I've been through.
--
Smart, C., Neale, B. and Flowerdew, J. (2003), "Drifting Towards Shared
Residence?," Family Law, December, Volume 33. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/media/current/
There's a saying
that if you want to be successful in a particular endeavor, you should
follow the advice of a person who actually achieved success, not the advice
of an hypothesizer, theorist, speculator, opportunist, or apologist. Constance
Ahrons, a psych who has made money writing in favor of joint custody says:
"I
was the one who left, and for two miserable years my husband and I battled
constantly over custody, visitation, and child support. There were private
detectives, a kidnapping, several lawyers, and two years of legal fees
that took me the next ten years to pay off. That painful time of my life
was almost thirty years ago, and even today it is hard to write about."
--
Ahrons, Constance in The Good Divorce. (http://www.harpercollins.com/catalog/excerpt_xml.asp?isbn=0060926341)
Constance Ahrons's
book is a fantasy by a woman who by her own admission is decidedly unqualified
to opine on the subject. There are altogether too many persons with personal
agendas advocating for joint custody. When the claims seem inexplicable,
coming as they do from an erstwhile primary caregiving mother subjected
to this sort of thing, as Ahrons is (or was) -- and who resolved it by
making it the children's burden to carry-- in addition to the opportunism
characteristic of the psych community, do remember the adage "misery
loves company." They desperately want to characterize as "beneficial"
what happened to their own children by characterizing it as their "choice."
(This interesting phenomenon applies as well to a significant portion of
those who go into these meddling fields.) Given that the pain endured for
so long, one has to question whether indeed joint custody resolved it,
or merely perpetuated it, no longer unseemly in public view but rather
stuffed where it would fester interminably.
-- liz
WANT MORE
RESEARCH AND CITATIONS?
GETTING IT WRONG IN CHILD CUSTODY CASES,
Prof. Carol S. Bruch
Joint
Custody -- the Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions, liz
Myths
and Facts about Fatherhood: What the Research REALLY Says
Myths
and Facts about Motherhood: What the Research REALLY Says
Myths
and Facts about Mother-Absence and Stepparenting: What the Research
REALLY Says
Re
Bauserman's Joint Custody Meta-analysis.
What
the Experts Say: A Review of the Scholarly Research on Post-Divorce
Parenting and Child Well-being.
Myths
and Reality from the FREDA Centre for Research on Violence Against
Women and Children
Misplaced
Blame and Simplistic Solutions: DC's Joint Custody Presumption, by
Margaret Martin Barry --
Scholarly article by law professor discusses what's wrong with a statute
providing for a presumption of joint custody
When
Paradigms Collide: Protecting Battered Parents and Their Children in the
Family Court System, by Clare Dalton, 37 Fam. & Conciliation
Courts Rev. 273 (1999)
Margaret
Dore, Esq. on "friendly parent" provisions
Judge
Gerald W. Hardcastle on joint custody and judicial decisionmaking,
Family Law Quarterly, Spring 1998 (32:1)
Attachment
101 for Attorneys: Implications for Infant Placement Decisions, by
Eleanor Willemsen and Kristen Marcel
Custody
and Access: An NAWL Brief to the Special Joint Committee on Child Custody
and Access, March 1998 (Canada) and, new: The
Case Against Joint Custody (Ontario Women's Justice Network)
Joint
Custody: Implications for Women, by Renee Leff
originally published on the internet at http://www.pgi.edu/pdf/1995journal.pdf
Understanding
the Batterer in Visitation and Custody Disputes, by R. Lundy Bancroft.
Why
abuse may be reported for the first time at the time of a separation or
divorce; critique of Janet Johnston's categories of batterer; more.
Spousal
Violence in Custody and Access Disputes, Recommendations for Reform,
Nicholas M.C. Bala et al.
-- Scholarly article by Status of Women Canada Policy Research Fund (1998)
The
Truth About Joint Custody, by Trish Wilson
-- Don't call it "Shared Parenting."
Friendly
Parent Provisions, by Trish Wilson
-- What's Wrong With Them
Comments
by Trish Wilson; Testimony on SB 571 -- Rebuttable
Presumption for Joint Legal Custody -- Family Law and Fathers' Rights
Antics in Maryland
The
Abuse of Custody, an interview with attorney Ruth Lea Taylor
Custody
Order or Disordered Custody? by Joan Braun -- Law
student article with research cites published in BC Institute Against
Family Violence Newsletter
The
Psychological Effects of Relocation for Children of Divorce, by
Marion Gindes, Ph.D., AAML Journal, Vol. 15 (1998), pp. 119
Women's
Law Project - Testimony Against a Presumption of Joint Custody
What
the Father's Rights movement really looks like, liz
What
the "Responsible Fatherhood" movement really is about, liz
... and
Bibliography
of other articles (to be supplemented):
Brinig,
Margaret F., "Feminism
and Child Custody Under Chapter Two of the American Law Institute's
Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution." 8
Duke J. of Gender L. & Pol'y 301 (Spring/Summer 2001).
Hardesty,
Jennifer L.,"Separation Assault in the Context of Postdivorce Parenting:
An Integrative Review of the Literature." Violence Against Women
8.5 (May 2002): 597-625. Author discusses the negative implications of
friendly parent provisions for abused women.
Kuehl,
Sheila J., Against Joint Custody: A General Dissent to the General Bullmoose
Theory. Family and Conciliation Courts Review (1989), 27 (2) 37-45
 Neely,
Richard, The Primary Caretaker Parent Rule: Child Custody and the Dynamics
of Greed, 3 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 168 (1984)
Singer,
Jana B. & William L. Reynolds, A Dissent on Joint Custody, 47 Md. L.
Rev. 497 (1988). The primary caretaker preference eliminates much of
the bickering and confusion inherent in custody determinations by awarding
custody to the parent who has been most responsible for raising the child.
Waits,
Kathleen, "Battered Women and Their Children: Lessons from One Woman's
Story," Symposium: Domestic Violence and the Health Care System.
35 Hous. L. Rev. 29 (1998).
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