Characteristics of joint physical custody families in Flanders

She said, he said: Comparing mothers' and fathers' reports on the non-resident father's contact with his children

“…However, data from both parents are not always available. One might also get better data by improving the questionnaire: for example, by introducing some type of diary, such as the residential calendar developed by Sodermans, Matthijs, and Swicegood (2013).…”

Stepfather or biological father? Education-specific pathways of postdivorce fatherhood

“…Highly educated men remain more involved with childrearing than less-educated men, in the sense that there is a greater likelihood that the children from the dissolved marriage live in their household at least some of the time (Bjarnason and Arnasson 2011;Cancian et al 2014;. Explanations for these educational differences have been sought in a higher awareness of alternative custody arrangements, a higher ability to pay the extra costs of shared residence, more child-and family-orientated values or preferences of highly educated men, and their greater involvement in childrearing before union dissolution (e.g., Cancian et al 2014;Sodermans, Matthijs, and Swicegood 2013). 2) Stepfather position as result of repartnering a mother.…”

“…Belgium is an excellent setting in which to study postdivorce fatherhood, as after parental separation quite a large proportion of children live parttime with the father. In 1995 the country implemented joint legal custody and then in 2006 joint physical custody as legal defaults, which created a pathway toward more gender-neutral parenting (Sodermans, Matthijs, and Swicegood 2013). After joint custody had been legally adopted it became more widespread among different groups of parents (see Sodermans, Vanassche, and Matthijs 2013).…”

“…Whereas before the legislative shifts it had mostly been an arrangement chosen by well-educated parents and parents with low levels of conflict, its association with education has weakened and its link to parental conflict has even disappeared (Sodermans, Vanassche, and Matthijs 2013). It is estimated that more than 33% of Flemish children with parents who divorced between 2006 and 2009 are living in equally shared custody arrangements (Sodermans, Matthijs, and Swicegood 2013). Drawing on the Belgian setting, the study overcomes the issue of insufficient sample sizes of divorced fathers who coreside with their children and the problem of their high selectivity, and addresses the call for more research on the diversity of stepfamilies regarding type and variation across educational groups (Sweeney 2010).…”

The social life of divorced parents. Do custody arrangements make a difference in divorced parents’ social participation and contacts?

“…The current predominant post-separation model stipulates that both parents should spend substantial amounts of time with their children after divorce. A legal recommendation for joint physical custody was included in the Belgian law in 2006, and led to a further boost in incidence figures for joint physical custody (Sodermans, Matthijs, & Swicegood, 2013). Bauserman (2002) showed in his meta-analytic review that joint physical custody enables frequent contact between children and their both parents which can buffer detrimental effects caused by the divorce itself for children.…”