Custody Arrangements Research Articles

The Development of Children Endangered by Their Own Biological Parents within the Context of Joint Custody Arrangement after Divorce

Specifics of the post-divorce adjustment of so-called “joint custody” and its benefits and disadvantages that is subject to a several years-long discussions in the whole Czech society. Joint custody can take on many forms, such as true co-ordinance of mentally mature parents who are able to cooperate in the child’s interest. However, when and how can this form of organisation become suitable for the child? In some cases, perhaps even more so at certain ages, can this form be unsuitable or even threatening to the child? This article will present several specific cases that originate from qualitative research practise based on the author’s long-term psychological practice in this area.

Physical Custody Arrangements, Children’s Age, and Children’s Mental Health: A Comparison of Germany and Norway

This study investigated potential differences in mental health among children living in sole physical custody (SPC), asymmetric joint physical custody (JPC), and symmetric JPC; and it tested whether children’s age moderated the association between physical custody arrangements and children’s mental health. Using data from the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) and Norwegian Dynamics of Family Conflict (FAMC) studies, we estimated OLS regression models for children aged 2 to 14. In the German sample, children in asymmetric JPC had fewer mental health problems than children in SPC. However, this difference disappeared when controlling for various background variables, including the quality of parent-child relationships. Additionally, children’s age moderated the association between physical custody arrangements and children’s mental health problems, with increasing age being related to fewer mental health problems in asymmetric JPC. This association remained even after controlling for the background variables. In the Norwegian sample, no differences were found in children’s mental health across physical custody arrangements; nor did children’s age moderate the association. The results of this study emphasize that there may be cultural differences in how children’s mental health is related to their physical custody arrangements. Furthermore, there are modest indications that asymmetric JPC may be related to better mental health among older children in Germany.

Joint Physical Custody and Mothers’ Well-Being. An Analysis of Life Satisfaction, Depressiveness, and Stress

Although research has shown that separation or divorce can have negative consequences for mothers, only a few empirical studies have explored the association between joint physical custody and mothers’ well-being. To close this research gap, this study investigated how child physical custody arrangements (joint physical custody vs. sole physical custody) are related to three dimensions of maternal well-being: life satisfaction, depressiveness, and stress. With data from the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) survey, OLS regression models were estimated for 996 residential mothers living in post-separation families. The results of the statistical analysis showed that mothers with joint physical custody reported statistically significantly higher levels of life satisfaction as well as lower levels of depressiveness and stress than mothers with sole physical custody. However, when controlling for the mothers’ socio-demographic characteristics and family relationships, the differences between mothers in joint and sole physical custody families disappeared, indicating that mothers’ post-separation well-being cannot be explained by the physical custody arrangement these mothers practiced. Instead, factors like the mother’s partnership status, the mother-child relationship, and the interparental relationship were more strongly related to maternal well-being. When testing interaction effects between the physical custody arrangement and the individual control variables, only one interaction was significant in predicting mothers’ levels of life satisfaction and stress: the interaction between the physical custody arrangement and the age of the child living in this arrangement. This finding suggests that having joint physical custody is only beneficial for mothers with older (i.e., school-aged) children.

Coparenting as a mediator between physical custody arrangements and children's mental health.

The detrimental effects of parental break-up on children's mental health are well-documented. However, research has also shown that children living in joint physical custody (JPC) arrangements often fare better than children living in sole physical custody (SPC) arrangements. Thus, the question arises: What are the differences between JPC and SPC that account for those results? Drawing on data from the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) study conducted in 2019, structural equation models (SEM) were estimated to deduct the mediating role of coparenting support in children's mental health in 465 JPC and 652 SPC families with children aged 2-14. The findings suggest that the better mental health observed among children in JPC families than among children in SPC families was fully mediated by coparenting support. However, this held true only for internalizing and externalizing behavior, but not for prosocial behavior as no differences between JPC and SPC were found for this dimension. The findings affirm the importance of supportive coparenting for children's well-being after family dissolution in both SPC and JPC arrangements. After breaking up, parents should be supported in their parental engagement through coparenting counseling or psychoeducation classes.

Child-perceived parental support and knowledge in shared physical custody and other living arrangements for children

Objective: The aim of this paper is to develop an understanding of how child-perceived parental support and knowledge among children in Sweden differ across ten forms of residential arrangement. Background: Shared physical custody has become an increasingly common arrangement for children in separated families in many European countries. In an international comparison, Sweden has a high rate of parental union dissolution but also the highest prevalence of shared physical custody arrangements following divorce or separation. Over a third of all children with divorced or separated parents spend an equal amount of time living in both parental households. Method: We used data from the Swedish HBSC survey from 2013/14, which are focused on children in grades 5, 7 and 9 in the Swedish comprehensive school system (n=7360) and used perceived parental support and perceived parental knowledge scales as dependent variables in multiple ordered logistic regressions conducted separately by the sex of the parent. Results: The results show that children in shared physical custody report higher levels of parental support and knowledge than children in sole physical custody and equally high as those who live in a two-parent family. Children living in non-symmetrical physical custody arrangements report lower levels of paternal support and knowledge than children whose parents share physical custody equally. Maternal support and knowledge does not differ between children living in symmetrical and non-symmetrical shared physical custody arrangements, whereas paternal support and knowledge is lower in families where the child lives in an unequal residential sharing arrangement with the mother as the main co-residential parent. Conclusion: Post-divorce living arrangements are clearly associated with the relationship between parents and children, with children in shared physical custody reporting stronger relationships than children in sole physical custody. The cross-sectional nature of the data prevents us from drawing conclusions on causality, however.

Joint physical custody in Germany: legal framework and results of the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) study

Abstract Only since a landmark decision by the Federal Court of Justice on 1 February 2017 has it been clear that family courts in Germany can order symmetric joint physical custody against the will of one parent. The prerequisite is that this solution is in the child’s best interests. This article analyses which criteria have been used by courts to order this physical custody arrangement since the decision. It also presents the results of the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) study, which the authors conducted in Germany by interviewing a total of 1,554 families to investigate the living conditions of children cared for in joint physical custody care arrangements. Joint physical custody children were compared to children growing up in sole physical custody arrangements. Results show that joint physical custody can be a good solution for parents who succeed in keeping interparental conflict away from their children and reach an amicable agreement on the care of their children after separation. However, the advantages of joint physical custody were more apparent for children in the age group of 7–14 years than for younger children in the age group of 2–6 years. Furthermore, asymmetric joint physical custody seemed to have more positive effects on children’s well-being than symmetric joint physical custody.

'Everybody likes it more when it's even': Joint physical custody from the children’s perspective

In April 2022, the Polish Children’s Ombudsman publicly addressed the Minister of Justice, demanding changes in family law regarding child custody post-parental separation. The Ombudsman pointed out the lack of a legal definition of joint physical custody (JPC) and suggested there should be a clear definition and associated regulation. The Ombudsman’s address is one part of the debate on JPC that has recently emerged in Poland. Politicians, mothers, and fathers are actively engaged in the debate, with each of their voices well represented. Both supporters and opponents of joint physical custody claim that their main concern is the best interest of the child. However, no attempts have been made to listen to children’s opinions about custodial arrangements. This article is based on interviews with 23 children living in JPC. I asked the children about their everyday experience of home and belonging and their relationships with their parents, siblings, and parents’ new partners. I also asked their opinions on how custodial arrangements should be made to suit them. The interviewees complained about the inconvenience of frequent moves but also stated that living with their mother and father interchangeably allowed them to be as close to each of the parents as they desired. For this reason, the interviewees considered JPC a preferable solution after divorce.

Parents’ loneliness in sole and joint physical custody families

This study examined the relationship between post-separation physical custody arrangements – that is, sole physical custody (SPC), asymmetric, and symmetric joint physical custody (JPC) – and resident parents’ loneliness. The analyses were based on data from the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) survey with an analytical sample of 1,146 resident parents living in post-separation families. Bivariate findings suggested that resident parents practicing asymmetric JPC reported fewer feelings of loneliness than resident parents practicing SPC. However, no differences were found between parents in symmetric JPC and SPC families. In the full multivariate model, the difference between resident parents in asymmetric JPC and SPC arrangements disappeared. Results showed that resident parents practicing asymmetric JPC had more time for friends and were less depressive and, thus, felt less lonely than parents with SPC arrangements.

A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Paternal Intimacy Problems, Stress Levels, and Satisfaction from Families with Children Born with Mucoviscidosis.

There is an increasing interest in father-child interactions and their effects. Due to the rising number of working mothers, marital interruptions, divorces, and child custody arrangements, paternal duties and the relevance of fathering continue to be re-evaluated. As there are rising expectations for men to undertake more childcare and household responsibilities, it was hypothesized that the presence of a disabled or chronically ill child would have a significant impact on the couple's future family situation, marital conduct due to paternal dissatisfaction, and increased stress levels. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine paternal intimacy problems, stress levels, and couple satisfaction inside families that have children with cystic fibrosis. The study followed a cross-sectional design with five questionnaires that were answered by a total of 107 fathers of children with cystic fibrosis from the "cases" group as the reference group, and 124 fathers of healthy children from the "control" group. The statistically significant findings of the current study show that men who were taking care of their child with mucoviscidosis engaged less frequently in sexual activity. A significantly higher number of these respondents were smokers. A higher proportion of them reported marital distress (OR = 2.54) and inhibited sexual desire (OR = 2.02), all in association with a higher number of men taking psychiatric medication (7.5% vs. 1.6%). More than 40% of all respondents declared high levels of general stress and parenting distress, while the most frequently used coping mechanism for stress was avoidance-oriented (45.8% vs. 25.8%). Other important findings were the high levels of dissatisfaction and lower levels of marital quality on the SII scale, equivalent to the intimacy problems on the MIQ scale. It is likely that paternal stress is higher when parenting children with cystic fibrosis, and the lack of intervention in this vulnerable group seem to be associated with intimacy problems, couple dissatisfaction, and maladaptive coping mechanisms. It is recommended that these concerns should not only be raised for the mothers of children with mucoviscidosis, but also for the child's father or the male caretaker partner since they might experience the same problems as the opposite gender.

Maternal satisfaction with joint and sole child physical placement arrangements following separation in Wisconsin and Finland.

Families (and sometimes courts) make important decisions regarding child physical custody arrangements post-separation, and shared parenting arrangements are increasingly common in most developed countries. Shared arrangements may be differentially associated with parental satisfaction, and these associations may vary across countries. Using data from surveys of separated mothers in Wisconsin and Finland, the present study explores this possibility and is guided by three aims: (a) to identify child and family characteristics associated with sole and shared child placements 6 or more years after separation; (b) to estimate associations of children's post-separation placements with maternal satisfaction with placements and expense sharing; (c) to examine whether the relationship between post-separation placement and maternal satisfaction varies by mothers' earnings and the quality of parents' relationships. We find that Finnish mothers with shared placement are more satisfied with their placement than are their counterparts with sole placement, while we find the inverse is true for Wisconsin mothers. Moreover, parental satisfaction with shared placement, overall and relative to sole placement, varies greatly depending on the quality of a mother's relationship with the other parent; and differences in relationship quality in Wisconsin and Finland may help explain the difference in satisfaction with shared placement in the two locations. In both Finland and Wisconsin, we find mothers with shared placement are more satisfied with the way expenses are shared between parents than are mothers with sole placement. Associations between placement and satisfaction are robust to extensive controls for child and maternal characteristics.

Physical custody arrangements and fathers’ post-separation well-being

ABSTRACT Joint physical custody (JPC) is an emerging post-separation care arrangement in which children spend considerable periods of time with both of their parents. Although there is some research on JPC that has focused on children’s well-being, little is known about how this physical custody arrangement affects fathers’ well-being. Therefore, this study investigated the well-being of fathers with symmetric JPC and of non-resident fathers whose children live either mostly or exclusively with their mother. The statistical analysis draws on longitudinal data from waves 4–12 of the German Family Panel (pairfam). Random- and fixed-effects regression models were estimated for 1,372 observations of 389 fathers. The results of the bivariate random-effects models showed that fathers with symmetric JPC reported higher life satisfaction than other fathers. However, the fixed-effects model indicated that these differences were due to positive selection into symmetric JPC. Moreover, the results of the multivariate random- and fixed-effects models showed no statistically significant relationship between physical custody arrangements and fathers’ stress, depressiveness, life satisfaction, and general health. Taken together, this study suggests that physical custody arrangements are unrelated to fathers’ post-separation well-being while hinting at the relevance of selection processes among post-separation families.

The post-separation well-being of children and parents. What roles do physical custody arrangements and stepparents play?

ABSTRACT This study investigated the relationships between different types of post-separation families (physical custody arrangements x stepfamily status) and parents’ and children’s well-being. Using data from waves 3–12 of the German Family Panel, random- and fixed-effects regression models were estimated for two analytical samples of 1,199 resident parents and 1,129 children aged 7–17. No statistically significant relationships between physical custody arrangements and parents’ depressiveness and life satisfaction were found, but living with a partner was shown to be positively related to parental life satisfaction. Neither physical custody arrangements nor stepfamily status were related to children’s mental and physical health.

How do children and adolescents of separated parents sleep? An investigation of custody arrangements, sleep habits, sleep problems, and sleep duration in Sweden

How do children and adolescents of separated parents sleep? An investigation of custody arrangements, sleep habits, sleep problems, and sleep duration in Sweden

Dislocated lives: the experience of women survivors of family and domestic violence after being ‘Hagued’

ABSTRACT This article reports on interviews with ten women who had experienced the legal process of the 1980 Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the ‘Hague Convention’ or the ‘Convention’). We refer to that experience as being ‘Hagued’. All the women were subjected to a Hague return order after fleeing family and domestic violence perpetrated by their previous partner, because they fled with their children across international borders. Subsequently, all women were ordered to return their children to the country where their abusive previous partner lived. Nine out of the ten women also returned with their children. On return the women experienced further harms: they were vulnerable to, further intimidation and controlling behaviour from previous partners; they became homeless; and they felt punished in ordered from returning country’s courts through reduced contact and custody arrangements. The article concludes by suggesting if the Convention, the domestic implementation laws and ultimately the courts assessing return applications, placed greater emphasis and understanding on family and domestic violence, then the women interviewed probably would not have been ordered to return their children and they would not have experienced further post-Hague harm.

Does Part-Time Mothering Help Get a Job? The Role of Shared Custody in Women’s Employment

Though child shared physical custody arrangements after divorce are much more frequent and parents who use it more diverse in many European countries, little is known about their economic consequences for parents. By relaxing family time constraints, does shared custody help divorced mothers return to or stay on work more easily? Since lone mothers are one of the least-employed groups, and they face high unemployment rates, the type of child custody arrangement adopted after divorce is of particular interest for their employability. This article analyses to what extent the type of child custody arrangement affects mothers’ labour market patterns after divorce.Using a large sample of divorcees from an exhaustive French administrative income tax database, and taking advantage of the huge territorial discrepancies observed in the proportion of shared custody, we correct for the possible endogeneity of shared custody. Results show that not repartnered mothers with shared custody arrangements are 24 percentage points more likely to work one year after divorce compared to those having sole custody, while no significant effect is found for repartnered mothers. Among lone mothers, we also highlight huge heterogeneous effects: larger positive effects are observed for previously inactive women, for those belonging to the lowest income quintiles before divorce, for those with a young child, and for those who have three or more children. Thus, shared physical custody arrangements may reduce work–family conflict by diminishing childcare expenses and enlarge the possibilities to find a suitable job because of more relaxed time constraints for lone mothers.

Adolescent self-esteem, parent-child relationships, and joint physical custody

This study’s objective was to examine differences in self-esteem between adolescents living in joint physical custody (JPC) and sole physical custody (SPC) families and to test the mediating role of parent-child relationships. Based on data from the Family Models in Germany study we estimated OLS regression and structural equation models for 294 adolescents aged 11 to 14. Adolescents in JPC reported marginally higher self-esteem than their counterparts in SPC. When controlling for positive and negative indicators of the quality of parent-child relationships, mother-child and father-child closeness were positively related to adolescent self-esteem and fully mediated the relationship between physical custody arrangements and self-esteem. Thus, the quality of parent-child relationships was more important in explaining adolescent self-esteem than physical custody arrangements.

Families facing the Italian lockdown: Temporal adjustments and new caring practices in shared physical custody arrangements

Objective: This paper investigates the impact of the 2020 Covid-19 related Spring Lockdown in Italy on families practicing shared physical custody (SPC) arrangements for their children.
 Background: Those family configurations partly challenge the dominant 'mother as main carer model' that characterizes Italian society. Here, we consider the lockdown as a "challenge-trial" to analyze the strategies that these families have developed to cope with lockdown, and to reveal the overarching structures that contributed to shape this experience of lockdown.
 Method: We draw on semi-structured interviews with 19 parents (9 fathers and 10 mothers), part of 12 families practicing SPC.
 Results: We propose a typology of custody re-organizations during lockdown and how this affected the division of parental involvement based on a) change/no change in sleepover calendars in favor of mother/father; and b) similar/different arrangements for siblings – a new practice that emerged and also has implications for the division of childcare between parents. Four types are identified where we emphasize new parenting practices and the role played by material housing configurations, relations and tensions between family members, as well as balancing work, school and childcare.
 Conclusion: We highlight the usefulness of applying a "challenge-trial" lens to the study of family life under lockdown, and the need to complexify research on gender equality in shared parenting and on sibling relationships in post-divorce families.

Post-Separation Physical Custody Arrangements in Germany: Examining Sociodemographic Correlates, Parental Coparenting, and Child Adjustment

Most children continue to live with their mother after a divorce or separation, yet paternal involvement in post-separation families has increased substantially in many Western nations. This shift has contributed to a growing share and more diverse set of post-separation parents opting for shared physical custody (SPC), which typically means that children alternate between the parental residences for substantive amounts of time. Profiling the case of Germany, where no legal regulations facilitating SPC are implemented to date, we examine the prevalence of SPC families, sociodemographic correlates of SPC, and its associations with parental coparenting and child adjustment. Using representative survey data sampled in 2019 (N = 800 minors of 509 separated parents), results revealed that only 6–8% of children practiced SPC. SPC parents were more likely to hold tertiary levels of schooling and to report a better coparenting relationship with the other parent. There was no link between SPC and child adjustment, yet conflictual coparenting was linked to higher levels of hyperactivity among SPC children. We conclude that the social selection into SPC and linkages between conflictual coparenting and hyperactivity among SPC children likely stem from the higher costs and the constant level of communication between the ex-partners that SPC requires.

Children's well-being in sole and joint physical custody families.

Joint physical custody (JPC), a parental care arrangement in which children live with each parent about equally after separation or divorce, is an increasingly common phenomenon in many countries. This is a major shift away from the standard of sole physical custody (SPC), in which children live primarily with one parent (usually their mother) after family dissolution. Although attention to JPC by social scientists is growing, and the effects of this arrangement on children's well-being are the subject of highly ideological debates, there is currently little empirical evidence with statistical power on JPC. Using data from Family Models in Germany (FAMOD), a survey of postseparation families conducted in 2019, we estimated four linear regression models for children aged 2-14 in SPC and JPC families, with analytic samples of up to 1,161 cases. We investigated the association between physical custody arrangements after separation or divorce and four dimensions of children's well-being: psychological, physical, social, and cognitive/educational. The bivariate results provided support for the hypothesis that children living in JPC families fare significantly better than children living in SPC families on all four dimensions of well-being. However, after controlling for a set of child, parent, and separation characteristics, as well as for the quality of family relationships, the differences between children from SPC and JPC families disappeared. Additional analyses revealed that the parent-child relationships fully mediated this association. In sum, the quality of family relationships accounted for the positive association between JPC and children's well-being in this study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Practical Applications of Operational Due Diligence on Cryptocurrency and Digital Asset Funds

In <b><i>Operational Due Diligence on Cryptocurrency and Digital Asset Funds</i></b>, published in the Winter 2022 Due Diligence Special Issue of <b><i>The Journal of Alternative Investments</i></b><i>,</i><b>Jason Scharfman</b> of <b>Corgentum Consulting</b> outlines key developments in due diligence practices by limited partners investing in digital asset funds. He first highlights risks that are specific to cryptocurrencies as exemplified by certain fraud cases, the use of the dark web, and ransomware attacks. These issues, coupled with the rapid innovation in the crypto space, demand enhanced operational due diligence. Therefore, one important trend is increased specialization with due diligence questionnaires developed specifically for funds dealing with cryptocurrencies. A second key trend is a focus on custody arrangements, with a strong preference for hosted wallets. A third trend is the declining use of third-party background investigation services and instead combining operational due diligence with investigative due diligence.