Maternal Preference in Child Custody Decisions

Abstract

At this time, all states have gender neutral child custody laws, which have replaced laws and precedents which usually gave preference to mothers (maternal preference) in custody decisions. There have been suggestions in the legal literature that maternal preference among judges may still exist in spite of these laws. In the present study, state judges in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee were surveyed by mail with regard to their beliefs dealing with issues related to maternal preference in child custody decisions. The items on the questionnaire dealt with the quality of parenting provided by mothers versus fathers, children's adjustment following divorce while living with mothers versus fathers, and the preferred custodian following divorce. Usable data was provided by 149 judges. The results of the study showed that the judges exhibited continuing indications of maternal preference. These results were very consistent, with the means on every item of the questionnaire indicating a greater preference toward mothers than fathers.