Domestic migrations: Effects on youngsters of post-divorce joint physical custody circumstances.

Abstract

The psychological adjustment of youngsters in de facto joint physical custody circumstances is compared with that of youngsters in sole physical/joint legal custody following parental divorce. One parent and one biological child, ages 7 to 17, from 40 families in which divorce had been finalized between 1980 and 1991 made up each of the sample groups. Selection of the families was made on the basis of information on children's access to parents collected via telephone interviews. In face-to-face meetings, parents and children were separately administered standardized psychological instruments and semi-structured interviews. In comparisons between the two groups, many similarities but several significant differences were found. Most strikingly, on parent-report data of children's behavior, joint physical custody children were adjusting less well, but on children's self-reports they were found to be adjusting better. This phenomenon was explained in part by close relationships between parental psychopathology and child distress. Children in joint physical custody circumstances tended to adjust better with time, whereas children in sole circumstances tended to have more difficulties as they grew older. In both groups, boys encountered more behavioral and emotional problems than did girls. Within both groups, interparental conflict reported both for the period before and after divorce was associated with poorer children's adjustment. For those in joint physical custody, the parents' inability to resolve conflict emerged as a strong predictor of children's difficulties. For youngsters in sole physical custody, the extent to which they felt caught in the middle between hostile parents was strongly associated with low self-esteem. In particular, sole custody boys of high school age reported far more problems than their joint physical custody counterparts. The more frequent residential transitions of the joint custody children were not associated with confusion or disruption. No evidence was found that joint custody potentiates a more harmonious postdivorce interparental relationship. The author concluded that joint physical custody, on the whole, could not be said to confer greater advantages for children than sole custody, although it seemed to provide a buffer for youngsters in special situations and was associated with better adjustment for teenage boys.