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

Abstract

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.

Parenting Styles, Coparenting, and Early Child Adjustment in Separated Families with Child Physical Custody Processes Ongoing in Family Court

“…However, it must always be submitted to the Family and Minors Court for approval or hearing, if necessary, except family circumstances in which it is not possible or when it is not in the best interests of the child. Notwithstanding this, household arrangements remain asymmetric as in other western countries [33,39]. Even with equivalent groups of sole and joint psychical custody, the distribution of the number of days with fewer days spent with the father follows that found in earlier studies Based on attachment to the mothers, children under three are traditionally in sole custody, spending fewer overnights with the father, thus overlooking attachment to fathers or father involvement [14,55].…”

“…In a large study in Germany, children in joint physical custody presented higher wellbeing when compared to the sole custody group. However, differences in child adjustment disappeared when controlling for parent, child, separation, and quality of family relationship [39]. When high interparental conflict occurs, children from both custody arrangements denote similar levels of mental health problems [37].…”

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

“…A German study based on a convenience sample (Augustijn 2021a) also showed similar findings: Although SPC children displayed fewer psychosomatic problems than children in sole care models, these differences can at least partly be explained by the selectivity into SPC (e.g., a better parent-child relationship, interestingly especially with the mother rather than the father). Other analyses based on this data also demonstrated that SPC children were better off with regard to other dimensions of well-being (e.g., physical health or school grades) compared to children in sole care models (Steinbach and Augustijn 2021). However, when several control variables were taken into account (e.g., the quality of family relationships), these differences disappeared.…”

“…Compared to two-parent families there are hardly any disadvantages in child well-being (e.g., Hagquist 2016). Furthermore, the reported associations often disappeared when other family characteristics, such as relationship qualities, were taken into account (Steinbach and Augustijn 2021). In other representative studies, there were hardly any differences between the different physical custody arrangements after separation (i.e., SPC vs. sole care models; Hjern et al 2021a).…”

The Divorce Process and Child Adaptation Trajectory Typology (DPCATT) Model: The Shaping Role of Predivorce and Postdivorce Interparental Conflict

“…As Pruett et al ( 2014 ) summarized, “Critical variables in considering readiness for and the likely impact of overnight schedules include parents’ psychological and social resources, the current nature of parental dynamics—particularly conflict, and the nature and quality of each parent–child relationship prior to separation.” (p. 250). Indeed, accumulating evidence has indicated that the circumstances under which a given physical custody arrangement is practiced—and especially the quality of family relationships—are more important than the custody arrangement itself (see Steinbach & Augustijn, 2021 ; Steinbach et al, 2021 ).…”