Father‐custody and child development: A review and analysis of psychological research

Characteristics of joint physical custody families in Flanders

“…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".…”

Consequences of the Sex of the Custodial Parent on Three Indicators of Adolescents' Well-Being

“…Researchers often rely on reports from the parents. Evidently, these reports can be biased in favor of the parent (Warshak, 1986). In research by Hilton and Devall (1998), single mothers report more frequently than parents in other family-constellations, and especially as compared to single fathers, that their children are anxious, depressive or sad.…”

“…Because several studies support the same-sex hypothesis-saying that children are better off living with the parent of the same sex (e.g., Warshak, 1986;Warshak & Santrock, 1983)-we can expect that the effect of the sex of the custodial parent may depend on the sex of the child. Therefore an interaction effect is added to the model before continuing with controlling for different family characteristics.…”

“…Santrock and Warshak (Santrock & Warshak, 1979;Santrock et al, 1982;Warshak, 1986;Warshak & Santrock, 1983), who work in the tradition of the same-sex hypothesis (which states that for children it is preferable to be raised by the parent of the same sex), do not find any difference between children living in father-custody or mother-custody arrangements in terms of self-concept and social development.…”

“…Worse, when the aim is understanding and theory building, is that in this research single fathers are not compared with intact families-as is usually the case in the research on single mothers-or with single mothers (Guttman, 1989;Keshet & Rosenthal, 1978;Orthner & Lewis, 1979;Santrock & Warshak, 1979;Warshak, 1986). Only occasionally are single fathers explicitly compared with single mothers (e.g., DeFrain & Eirick, 1981).…”