Alternating Residence for Children After Parental Separation: Recent Findings from Belgium

Vanassche, Sofie; Sodermans, An Katrien; Declerck, Charlotte; Matthijs, Koenraad

doi:10.1111/fcre.12303

Cited by 42 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…33 That evaluation also found that children in shared-time arrangements "fared marginally better" than children in maternal residence-except where mothers reported "safety concerns" (p. 273). This finding is consistent with studies of sharedtime parenting and children's outcomes in the United States (see also Poortman & Van Galaan, 2017;Vanassche et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Shared‐Time Parenting After Separation in Australia: Precursors, Prevalence, and Postreform Patterns

Smyth¹,

Chisholm²

2017

Family Court Review

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In 2006, sweeping changes to the family law system were introduced in Australia. A central plank running through the changes was the need for courts and divorce professionals to consider whether a child spending ‘equal’ or else ‘substantial and significant’ periods of time with each parent would be in the child's best interests and be reasonably practicable. More recently, family violence amendments have led to greater weight being given to protecting children from harm. Yet neither set of legislative amendments appears to have led to marked changes in the incidence of shared‐time arrangements. We explore possible reasons for this surprising outcome.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Shared‐Time Parenting After Separation in Australia: Precursors, Prevalence, and Postreform Patterns

Smyth¹,

Chisholm²

2017

Family Court Review

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“…Thus, in several Western countries, states, and regions, custody laws were revised in the last couple of years that underline the importance of ongoing co‐parental involvement (e.g., Australia : Smyth & Chisholm, ; Belgium : Vanassche, Sodermans, Declerck, & Matthijs, ; Catalonia, Spain : Solsona & Spijker, ; Italy : De Blasio & Vuri, ; Sweden : Singer, ; The Netherlands : Poortman & van Gaalen, ; UK : Nikolina, ; Wisconsin, USA : Meyer et al., ). Interestingly, none of the jurisdictions in those countries legislated with a 50/50 share in mind.…”

Section: Joint Physical Custody: Definition Legal Context and Prevamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also in other countries, the prevalence of joint physical custody arrangements in separated or divorced families has increased in the last couple of years. They make up to about 40% in Belgium (Vanassche et al., , p. 549) and Sweden (Bergström et al., ; p. 769), about 30% in Norway (Kitterød & Wiik, , p. 561), about 20% in Denmark (Spruijt & Duindam, , p. 66), 5% (Ontario) to 40% (Quebec) in Canada (Bala et al., , p. 520), 16% in Australia (Smyth & Chisholm, ; p. 594), 22% in the Netherlands (Poortman & van Gaalen, , p. 533), 15% in Spain—again with large variations between different regions (Solsona & Spijker, , p. 302), and 12% in the UK (Harris‐Short, , p. 258). Although JPC arrangements have increased during recent decades in all of these countries, it seems that they have now plateaued in some of them (e.g., Wisconsin, Australia, and the Netherlands).…”

Section: Joint Physical Custody: Definition Legal Context and Prevamentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's and Parents’ Well‐Being in Joint Physical Custody: A Literature Review

2018

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Joint physical custody (JPC), a parental care arrangement in which a child lives with each parent for at least 25-50% of the time after separation or divorce, is increasingly common in many Western societies. This is a major shift from the standard of sole physical custody, with mostly mothers providing primary childcare after a parental separation or divorce. The increasing share of separated or divorced parents who practice JPC, which in some countries, US states, and regions reaches 30% and more, results from increasing gender equality due to mothers participating considerably in the labor force and fathers being actively involved in their children's daily lives. This review focuses on the effects of JPC on children's and parents' well-being, based on 40 studies from North America, Australia, and Europe published between 2007 and 2018. In sum, there is empirical evidence from different countries that suggests that JPC arrangements can have positive effects on the well-being of children and of parents. However, the existing studies are conceptually, methodologically, and contextually very heterogeneous. In addition, self-selected highly educated parents with a high socio-economic status, a low conflict level, and children between the ages of 6-15 practicing JPC dominate the samples. Thus, the risks and benefits of JPC are not clear yet and are heavily debated by advocates and academics. The review concludes with suggestions for future research.

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“…However, it seems that in some countries it is much more widespread than in others. However, JPC families (symmetric and asymmetric) make up about 40% of all separated or divorced families in Belgium (Vanassche, Sodermans, Declerck, & Matthijs, 2017) and Sweden (Bergström et al, 2015), and these care arrangements are less prevalent in other countries like Australia (16%) (Smyth & Chisholm, 2017), or Spain (15%; Solsona & Spijker, 2016). After all, we have numbers only for countries where the phenomenon is known and thus gets some attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Joint Physical Custody and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction in 37 North American and European Countries

2020

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Joint physical custody, a parental care arrangement in which a child lives with each parent about equally after separation or divorce, is an increasingly common phenomenon in many Western countries. Although attention from family scholars, practitioners, and law professionals is growing, there are hardly any numbers on the prevalence of joint physical custody (JPC). Moreover, studies using large‐scale representative data on the effects of JPC for children’s well‐being are still rare. The data for this study come from Health Behaviour in School‐Aged Children (HBSC), a representative cross‐national survey of adolescents in 37 European and North American countries that was conducted in 2002, 2006, and 2010 and included information on students at the ages of 11, 13, and 15 years (N = 92,886). First, results revealed that symmetrical JPC after family dissolution is still very rare in the majority of countries (5% or less), but reaches 10–20% in some countries. Second, adolescents’ life satisfaction in nonintact families is higher in symmetric JPC arrangements than in asymmetric care arrangements. However, after controlling for children and family characteristics, the differences disappear. Thus, it is not the symmetric JPC arrangement that induces adolescents’ higher life satisfaction, but rather the children and family characteristics that are associated with the choice of such a custody arrangement by separated or divorced parents.

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Alternating Residence for Children After Parental Separation: Recent Findings from Belgium

Cited by 42 publications

References 17 publications

Shared‐Time Parenting After Separation in Australia: Precursors, Prevalence, and Postreform Patterns

Shared‐Time Parenting After Separation in Australia: Precursors, Prevalence, and Postreform Patterns

Children's and Parents’ Well‐Being in Joint Physical Custody: A Literature Review

Joint Physical Custody and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction in 37 North American and European Countries

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