Divorce Law in the United States: A Focus on Child Custody

Buehler, Cheryl; Gerard, Jean M.

doi:10.2307/584999

Cited by 43 publications

(32 citation statements)

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“…When paternity is formally established for nonmarital children, the paternity establishment action can also include provisions for where the child will live. For most of the twentieth century, in both divorce and nonmarital cases, the most common outcome when children did not live with both parents was for them to live with their mother (e.g., Buehler and Gerard 1995). This conformed with gender norms in which mothers were seen as better caretakers of children, especially young children.…”

Section: Policy Context and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 89%

Who Gets Custody Now? Dramatic Changes in Children’s Living Arrangements After Divorce

et al. 2014

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This article reexamines the living arrangements of children following their parents' divorce, using Wisconsin Court Records, updating an analysis that showed relatively small but significant increases in shared custody in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These changes have accelerated markedly in the intervening years: between 1988 and 2008, the proportion of mothers granted sole physical custody fell substantially, the proportion of parents sharing custody increased dramatically, and father-sole custody remained relatively stable. We explore changes in the correlates of alternative custody outcomes, showing that some results from the earlier analysis still hold (for example, cases with higher total family income are more likely to have shared custody), but other differences have lessened (shared-custody cases have become less distinctive as they have become more common). Despite the considerable changes in marriage and divorce patterns over this period, we do not find strong evidence that the changes in custody are related to changes in the characteristics of families experiencing a divorce; rather, changes in custody may be the result of changes in social norms and the process by which custody is determined.

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Section: Policy Context and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 89%

Who Gets Custody Now? Dramatic Changes in Children’s Living Arrangements After Divorce

et al. 2014

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“…A joint-custody provision relegates courts to handle only those custody disputes which cannot be settled privately (Buehler and Gerard, 1995). In the event that child custody must be decided in court, judges have discretion to rule in favor of joint custody if it conforms to the best interests of the child.…”

Section: Legal Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 See Buehler and Gerard (1995) for a discussion of the Best Interests of the Child (BIOC) standard and how the standard varies by state. 4 The child-custody-law coding provided by Brinig and Buckley (1998) does not distinguish between joint-legal and joint-physical custody.…”

Section: Economic Models Of Household Bargaining and Child Investmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child-custody reform, marital investment in children, and the labor supply of married mothers

Nunley

Seals

2011

Labour Economics

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“…Custody legislation is one arena in which changes have been remarkably rapid. Under the premise of the child"s best interest and driven by fathers" rights groups who rejected the courts" maternal presumption, legislators moved toward a more gender-neutral approach (Buehler and Gerard 1995;Felner, Terre, Farber, et al 1985;Fox and Kelly 1995;Frankel 1985;Rothberg 1983;Settle and Lowery 1982;Warshak 1986;Wolchik, Braver, and Sandler 1985;Van Krieken 2005). This led to the adoption of new concepts, such as "equal parental rights" and "joint physical custody".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%