The Growing Case for Shared Parenting After Divorce

Article here. Excerpt:

'For decades, there was a widely held belief they should have one home with the primary caretaker, often the mother. But that status quo is changing. Absent some mitigating factor, such as an abusive mom or a mentally ill dad, many experts now agree that kids are happier and healthier when they can “maintain and build on meaningful relationships with both of their parents,” says Michael Lamb, who teaches psychology at the University of Cambridge. More often than not, that requires living under the same roof as each parent for significant periods of time–which is possible only under joint, not sole, custody.

These claims are supported by reams of data, but the reasoning behind them is mostly commonsense: when it comes to parenting, two minds are better than one. “One might be better for a particular age or a particular kid or a certain type of problem,” explains Linda Nielsen, a psychology professor at Wake Forest University, who has studied custody arrangements. Dads, for example, are more likely to engage kids in physical play, which helps kids learn how to handle their bodies (no hitting!) and their emotions on and off the field. Moms, meanwhile, are more likely to reason with and socialize kids, which helps them understand how their actions affect others. And even if parents don’t occupy traditional gender roles–or are in a same-sex relationship–depriving a kid of one of them can have devastating long-term effects. A 2007 study found that kids who lived with each of their parents at least 35% of the time were less depressed and had fewer health problems and stress-related illnesses than those who lived with just one parent.'