Grandparents in Custody and Access Disputes

Abstract

All custody and access dispute cases referred to a court clinic during a one year period were examined to determine the extent of grandparental mvolvement and its impact, if any, on the recommendations made to the courts. Two-thirds of family law cases referred (67%) were found to have grandparental involvement. Grandparents were referred to in 77% of all court reports and mentioned specifically in the recommendations in 37% of these. Over one quarter (27%) of the clinicians stated that they would have made different recommendations had the grandparents not been involved. More than one-third of the parents and three-quarters of their children had actually lived in the grandparents' home during or after the parental separation. Grandparents may have an important role in actualizing the best interests of children involved in painful and disruptive disputes.

Grandparents and Stepgrandparents: Challenges in Counseling the Extended-Blended Family

“…In examining custody and dispute cases referred to a family court clinic, Wilks and Melville (1990) found that two thirds of cases had some form of grandparent involvement. More than one third of the parents and three fourths of the and Labor, 1985); however, this legislation is specific to biological grandparents and not stepgrandparents.…”

Grandparent visitation disputes: Multigenerational approaches to family mediation

“…In the majority of instances, mothers become custodial parents after divorce, and as relationships between first-and second-generation cosanguines become closer during divorce (particularly in the case of mothers), postdivorce contact between maternal grandparents and grandchildren often increases. Maternal grandparents often assume a parent like role in the children's life (Wilks and Melville, 1990). On the other hand, divorce reduces contact between first-and second-generation in-laws.…”

Grandparent Visitation Rights: Emergent Psychological and Psycholegal Issues

“…Grandparents' leverage in these situations is likely to be especially influential because the "triggering conditions" underlying their standing to petition the court often render the parent less equipped financially or emotionally for a court battle. Grandparents are thus highly influential partners in the negotiations that accompany parental divorce and other family changes (Fisk, 1989;Wilks & Melville, 1990). Although the added leverage provided by grandparent visitation statutes can be valuable when grandparents have strong and legitimate interests in their grandchildrenbecause parents may submit to visitation demands to avoid the financial and emotional costs of a lawsuitit can be dysfunctional for the family when the interests of grandchildren are not the primary reasons for the grandparent's actions, such as when grandparents use a lawsuit or its threat to "get back" at their son or daughter (see Derdeyn, 1985).…”