AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF SUPERVISED ACCESS AND CUSTODY EXCHANGE SERVICES

An exploratory outcome study to investigate the ability of a supervised access and custody exchange center to function as a safe visitation enforcement mechanism of the court was accomplished as part of a larger study investigating child well-being. During a 6-month period of program participation, frequency and consistency of noncustodial parents' access to children dramatically increased and interparental conflict significantly decreased, demonstrating that supervised visitation and custody exchange centers that function in partnership with family court during interim court processes can address the unmet needs of family court and high-conflict domestic disputant as well.     

NONCUSTODIAL FATHERS SPEAK ABOUT THEIR PARENTAL ROLE

This article reviews the findings of five recent qualitative studies on noncustodial fathers' views that could be found in the literature. Several common topics and themes were identified, including the following: These fathers experienced considerable divorce-related emotional distress; they were dissatisfied with their custody, visitation, and child support arrangements; they perceived the divorce proceedings to be unfair; and they had ongoing conflicts with their former spouses. Although these findings are not altogether new, collectively they increase one's awareness and understanding of the perceived circumstances of numerous noncustodial fathers. Based on these findings, the author challenges professionals to give renewed attention to helping noncustodial fathers overcome some of the major obstacles to their parenting.     

ALLEGATIONS AND SUBSTANTIATIONS OF ABUSE IN CUSTODY‐DISPUTING FAMILIES1

In this study of 120 divorced families referred for child custody evaluations and custody counseling, multiple allegations of child abuse, neglect, and family violence were raised in the majority of cases. About half of the alleged abuse was substantiated in some way with one fourth involving abuse perpetrated by both parents. Different kinds of allegations were raised against mothers compared with fathers. Implications of these findings for social policy, family court interventions, and the provision of coordinated services within the community are discussed.     

COPARENTING ARRANGEMENTS IN A JURISDICTION WITH STATUTORY GUIDELINES

Some states have recently moved away from the traditional winner-loser model of child custody to one focused on coparenting. Under the old approach, divorce decrees typically "awarded" custody to one parent while relegating the other to a "visitor" with poorly defined status. The new system is premised on the child's need for a continuing relationship with both parents and promotes this goal by upgrading the noncustodial parent's status and time-share, assigning substantive rights and responsibilities to both parents. To give effect to the shared parenting idea, Texas adopted joint custody and statutory visitation guidelines legislatively. The policy covers all major aspects of parental rights and duties with great specificity (not just child support, for which all states must have guidelines). It applies equally to divorce and paternity cases. Judges are authorized to deviate from standard visitation guidelines but must state a rationale for doing so on request. Parties may also negotiate and agree to arrangements at variance with the guidelines, subject to approval by the court. This article describes the statutory regime in Texas and its implementation in the family court system. Based on a sample of divorce and paternity cases in the state's largest jurisdiction, it documents innovative court interventions and a wide array of coparenting and support arrangements.     

A Rigorous Quasi‐Experimental Design to Evaluate the Causal Effect of a Mandatory Divorce Education Program

All couples with minor children who filed for divorce within a specific 6‐week period (N = 191 couples) in one jurisdiction were ordered to attend a divorce education program. The control group included about 20 couples randomly selected from each of six 6‐week intervals before and six 6‐week intervals after the treatment interval (N = 243 couples). Archival records were searched for variables such as legal and residential custody award, visitation percentage, and relitigation. The impact of the program was assessed by evaluating, for each variable, whether the data for program interval departed from the straight (regression) line drawn through all the control group intervals. Only the visitation time award significantly differed: 27.75% for treatment couples and 22.46% for control couples. Analyses show that the father's attendance at the program primarily accounts for the difference.

Key Points for the Family Court Community
• There are considerable methodological weaknesses in most of the existing evaluations of divorcing parent education programs.
• Stronger, more scientifically rigorous—and thus persuasive—designs are possible in court settings, such as the regression discontinuity quasi‐experimental design we feature here.
• Archival records, such as various court filings, are a rich and relatively untapped source of data.
• Being mandated to attend a single 2‐hour divorcing parent education class caused an increase in the visitation time award in divorce decrees.
• There is a disconnect between being mandated by a judge to attend a program and actual attendance.

     

YOUNG ADULTS' PERSPECTIVES ON DIVORCE Living Arrangements

There is increasing consensus that the perspectives of children need to be taken into account in decisions made by divorcing parents and the courts and that young adults who have lived through their parents' divorces can be an important source of information about children's perspectives. In this study, the authors assessed the perspectives of 820 college adults from divorced families on the issue of children's living arrangements after divorce. Respondents wanted to have spent more time with their fathers as they were growing up, and the living arrangement they believed was best was living equal time with each parent. The living arrangements they had as children gave them generally little time with their fathers. Respondents reported that their fathers wanted more time with them but that their mothers generally did not want them to spend more time with their fathers.     

PARENT EDUCATION IN THE DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT

This multisite assessment of five, court-affiliated parent education programs incorporates information from 3,000 exit surveys by attendees, 602 telephone interviews with willing parents six months later, comparisons with 145 divorcing parents who did not attend a program, and reviews of court activity. Parents report high levels of satisfaction with the programs and credit them with helping to sensitize them to their children's needs and making visitation more successful and enjoyable. Although attendees report better compliance with divorce decrees, comparable proportions of parents in treatment and comparison groups report conflict over child custody and access, and a review of court files shows identical litigation patterns for both groups over a four-year period of time .     

EARLY INTERVENTION MEDIATION

Early Intervention Mediation was a fifteen-month research project conducted at the Court of Domestic Relations of Hamilton County, Ohio. The project's intent was to test the efficacy of the early introduction of mediation to resolve parenting issues. The project involved ordering half of all divorcing parents, who were unable to agree on custody arrangements for their children, to attend mediation within six weeks after filing for divorce. The other half of divorcing parents were a control group who followed existing court procedures. At the conclusion of the project, results were compared between the two groups. In 61% of divorce cases ordered to mediation, parenting issues were fully resolved. Families were spared damaging and costly litigation, and the court reduced judicial hours.     

POSTDECREE LITIGATION Is Joint Custody to Blame?

The Joint Custody Symposium Project examined almost 600 court files in five judicial districts to investigate the common perception that joint custody contributes significantly to relitigation rates. Data indicated that joint custody as a factor accounted for only 10.8% of court returns. Financial concerns accounted for the majority of actions. Disputes over child custody appeared to be related to finances as well. Unfortunately, returns to court do not necessarily resolve the financial needs of divorced parents. The findings suggest that children may be used as pawns in court battles over money that are disguised as parenting concerns, as evidenced by the close relationship found between visitation or custody disputes and child support modification filings.     

PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FAMILIES DISPUTING CUSTODY

This article reports data on allegations of domestic violence in two samples of high-conflict families in child custody disputes. It delineates five basic types of interparental violence and corresponding patterns in parent-child relationships. The findings should be viewed as preliminary exploratory hypotheses, which, if confirmed in future research, suggest that differential assessment of domestic families is important when helping divorcing parents make custody and visitation plans.     

“I WANT MY MOMMIES”: THE CRY FOR MINI‐DOMAS TO RECOGNIZE THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILDREN OF SAME‐SEX COUPLES*

In child custody cases, courts will look to the best interests of a child to maintain visitation/custody rights only with the child's biological parent, not third parties. However, with a same‐sex couple, it is inevitable that one parent will not be the biological parent. Thus, when that parent is in a mini‐DOMA state, where same‐sex couples from non‐mini‐DOMA states do not have to be recognized, that parent will be viewed as a third party and lose all visitation/custody rights if the couple separates. This note advocates that mini‐DOMAs allow both the biological and nonbiological parents of a same‐sex couple to have visitation/custody rights of their children if it would be in the best interest of the children to do so.     

EMOTIONAL DISTRESS IN CHILDREN OF HIGH-CONFLICT DIVORCE

This study examines factors that contribute to the emotional distress of children whose parents experience an acrimonious divorce with conflict over custody and visitation issues. Information was gathered systematically from guardian ad litem reports on 105 children in order to explore the child's emotional distress in response to individual-, parental-, marital-, and custody–related factors. Findings emphasize the impact of the level of marital conflict in predicting increases in the child's emotional distress. The child who witnesses domestic violence and experiences child malmatment suffers a powerful cumulative impact from these factors. which results in a steep increase in emotional distress symptoms. A cluster of relevantfactors taken jointly, including the level of marital conflict, violence against a partner or against the child, the parent's mental health, the child's medical condition, and the nature of visitation changes, all contribute signifcantly to the child's emotional distress.     

CURRENT RESEARCH ON CHILDREN'S POSTDIVORCE ADJUSTMENT

This article reviews the current research on the effects of marital conflict, parental adjustment, custody, and access on children following divorce. Evidence from research demonstrates that significantly more adjustment problems confront children, especially boys, of divorced parents compared to those in never-divorced families. However, when assessed in years following the divorce, these children are functioning in normal limits and do not appear "disturbed," although the media report the opposite. The article discusses an important British study finding that marital conflict and not the divorce affect children and that divorce may mitigate some of the more destructive effects. The analysis of research dealing with joint custody brings together both current and ongoing studies. A surprising finding in one study was that mothers who share custody are more satisfied than those having sole custody and whose children see their father periodically. However, both groups expressed more satisfaction with their residential arrangement than did sole-custody mothers whose children had no paternal contact. Court-ordered joint custody was less satisfactory than when the parents voluntarily agreed to that arrangement, and spouses reporting high levels of marital conflict tended to do less well in joint custody arrangements than did families with less conflict.     

PROTECTING VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THEIR CHILDREN AFTER DIVORCE

This article discusses the issue of domestic violence in the postdivorce context and how abused women who have children with their abusers are at a particular high risk of becoming victims of this phenomenon. It discusses recent state legislation that has been enacted to deal with the problems of domestic abuse after divorce. More specifically, this article looks at the American Law Institute's proposed model statute on child custody and visitation and how it addresses the issue of domestic violence both during and after divorce. This article will also explore potential flaws of the American Law Institute's model as well as some ideas for further development in this area .     

Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Making Trauma‐Informed Custody and Visitation Decisions

This article explores the risks for young children and the challenges for courts that emerge when parents who are victims or perpetrators of intimate partner violence seek court decisions on child visitation or custody matters. We focus particularly on children age five and younger, a group that is disproportionately represented in families affected by intimate partner violence, and especially vulnerable to its traumatic impact. We examine the literature on children's response to violence between their parents and the literature on parental alienation, a counter‐charge that may arise when one parent alleges violence as a reason to limit the other parent's access to the children. We look at challenges faced by both mental health professionals and courts involved in custody determinations and make policy recommendations to help courts make trauma‐informed decisions that best serve children.     

INDIVIDUAL AND COPARENTING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DIVORCING AND UNMARRIED FATHERS

The current study examines differences in demographic characteristics, parental conflict, and nonresidential father involvement between divorcing and unmarried fathers with young children. Participants were 161 families (36 unmarried) with children aged 0 to 6 years, involved in a larger longitudinal study of separating and divorcing families. Baseline data were gathered from parenting plans, court databases, and parent reports. Results indicated that unmarried fathers were younger, more economically disadvantaged, less well educated, less likely to have their children living with them, and had less influence on decision making. Unmarried fathers reported more conflict regarding their attempts to be involved with their children in their day-to-day activities. Understanding these unique characteristics and dynamics will help to maximize effective services in the legal system for unmarried couples.     

DIVORCED PARENTS' FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THEIR CHILDREN'S COLLEGE EXPENSES

Reliable, quantitative, and current information is needed to inform the policy debate about whether parents, most commonly noncustodial parents, should be compelled to provide support for their children's higher education. We report data from a large study of the financial support college students reported receiving from their divorced mothers and fathers in a state where such payment is completely voluntary. Mothers' and fathers' financial resources did not differ greatly; when these were statistically controlled for, mothers and fathers contributed remarkably similar amounts of college support. Among other findings, fathers contributed more proportionately than mothers in families that had joint legal custody but less in sole maternal custody families. Our findings suggest policies that will likely encourage more voluntary support for higher education from divorced families.     

COMMENTARY ON "EMPIRICAL AND ETHICAL PROBLEMS WITH CUSTODY RECOMMENDATIONS:"

Whether or not custody evaluators, testifying as expert witnesses, continue to make specific custody recommendations, custody decision making will continue to be based upon inadequate and untested evidence unless and until we reform the family court system in American courtrooms. Judges and lawyers must have specialized knowledge and training about such things as the developmental needs of children, the effects of divorce on children, domestic violence, and child safety issues; lawyers must develop litigation as well as mediation and negotiation skills; specialized family courts utilizing individual calendars and case management techniques must be established; and the complexities and intellectual challenges of family law cases needs to be recognized.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND STRUCTURAL FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE DISENGAGEMENT OF NONCUSTODIAL FATHERS AFTER DIVORCE

The phenomenon of noncustodial fathers' disengagement from their children's lives is critically examined. Based on data obtained from a cross-national (Canada and Scotland) study on the impact of divorce on noncustodial fathers, the argument is developed that these fathers' disengagement from their children's lives results from a combination of structural constraints and fathers' own psychological response to the threatened or actual loss of their children and the predivorce father-child relationship. While divorce represents a loss which deprives fathers of an attachment figure and a role or identity, it also constitutes a situation where fathers are judicially and legislatively disadvantaged on the basis of gender. Attachment theory constructs relating to situations of loss and bereavement frame the analysis of fathers' psychological adaptation to divorce and psychological factors contributing to their disengagement from their children, and analyses of gender are used in an examination of the structural consequences of divorce for noncustodial fathers and structural factors contributing to their disengagement. This study also documents the destructive effect of a purely adversarially based approach to divorce.     

SEPARATION ANXIETY AND DE FACTO DENIAL OF VISITATION

The dynamics of separation anxiety and its potential impact upon restriction of legal visitation in preschool age children is discussed. The interplay between adult personality characteristics and the child's developmental level is inextricably intertwined to generate separation fears. This interplay is presented within a theoretical framework of interaction. Unfortunately, the child's reactions to separation are frequently misinterpreted by the parents as indications of some mistreatment by the former spouse. Although adjustment difficulties in preschool age children coping with divorce are likely, the pattern of disturbance associated with separation anxiety is predictable and occurs almost exclusively with temporary removal from the primary parent. Behavioral health and legal professionals are cautioned against allowing such behavioral disturbance to be utilized by combative parents to deny, restrict or abridge scheduled visitations with the nonresidential parent. Requests for private custody evaluations have increased dramatically in the past decade. Behavioral health professionals often find themselves being jointly stipulated to by disagreeing parties, or directly appointed by the court, to help formulate a residential plan to meet “the best interests of the children” affected. When assessing divorcing families with young children, varied adjustment patterns are observed. However, as Wallerstein and Kelly (1980) discovered, almost all children are adversely affected by the family rupture, at least on a short-term basis. Surprisingly less than 10 percent of the children experienced relief following the parental decision to divorce, despite the degree of explosiveness which may have characterized the dysfunctional marital relationship. Further, the particular response style exhibited by the children was primarily dependent upon the developmental and emotional level the child attained prior to the time of divorce. While positive adjustment has been correlated with an absence of feuding or animosity between the divorcing parents (McKinnon & Wallerstein, 1986), preschool children seem quite vulnerable to adjustment difficulties. Evidence has also begun to accumulate to suggest that divorce has a more serious impact upon boys than girls (Hetherington, 1979). Problems frequently surface during times of exchange, particularly when parents are actively engaged in battle. At its worst, these extreme maladjustments may resemble what appears to be a separation anxiety. Again, the Wallerstein and Kelly (1980) studies reported that preschool age youngsters displayed fright, exhibited regressions, confusion, increased aggression, maintained disruptive fantasies, and experienced guilt. While most of these symptoms remit within a year to a year and a half following divorce, continued bickering and conflict between the parents either prevents resolution, or may even exacerbate, these symptoms later. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the phenomenon of separation anxiety in greater detail, and to provide professionals aiding divorcing families with preschool age children sufficient information to recognize and understand these problems. Hopefully, this knowledge will facilitate those entrusted with making custodial-visitation recommendations, the confidence to follow through with agreed visitation plans despite what at first may appear to be discomfort to the child.