Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018;59(4):324-347.
doi: 10.1080/10502556.2018.1454200. Epub 2018 Apr 25.

Does Shared Parenting Help or Hurt Children in High Conflict Divorced Families?

Nicole E Mahrer  1 , Karey O'Hara  2 , Irwin N Sandler  2 , Sharlene A Wolchik  2
Affiliations

Does Shared Parenting Help or Hurt Children in High Conflict Divorced Families?

Nicole E Mahrer et al. J Divorce Remarriage. 2018.

Abstract

Despite a recent shift in the allocation of parenting time arrangements following divorce, there is no clear consensus regarding the effects of shared parenting on children's adjustment in high conflict families. We propose key questions and methodological options to increase the ability of results from well-designed empirical studies to inform practice and policy. We review eleven studies of the relations between parenting time and quality of parenting with children's adjustment in high conflict divorced families. Despite heterogeneity of the methods used across the studies some tentative conclusions can be made based on findings across multiple studies. Higher levels of shared parenting were related to poorer child adjustment in samples with high conflict many years following the divorce, but typically not in samples that assessed conflict during the divorcing process or in the two or three years following the divorce. There is also evidence that the effects of shared parenting on child adjustment in the presence of high conflict differs by gender, and that high quality of parenting by at least one parent is associated with better child adjustment in high conflict divorces. Implications for policy and practice are discussed as well as directions for research to strengthen the knowledge base to inform policy.

Keywords: Fathers; Interparental Conflict; Parenting Quality; Parenting Time; Shared Parenting; Youth Adjustment.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Adamsons K, & Johnson SK (2013). An updated and expanded meta-analysis of nonresident fathering and child well-being. Journal of Family Psychology, 27(4), 589–599. - PubMed
    1. Amato PR, & Rezac SJ (1994). Contact with nonresident parents, interparental conflict, and children’s behavior. Journal of Family Issues, 15(2), 191–207.
    1. Boring J, Sandler I, Tein JY, Horan J, & Velez C (2015). Children of Divorce- Coping with Divorce: A randomized controlled trial of an online prevention program for youth experiencing parental divorce. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83, 999–1005. - PubMed
    1. Braver SL, Ellman IM, Votruba AM & Fabricius WV (2011). Lay judgements about child custody after divorce. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 17, 212–240.
    1. Braver SL, Sandler IN, Cohen Hita L, & Wheeler LA (2016). A Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Two Court-Connected Programs for High-Conflict Families. Family Court Review, 54(3), 349–363.

LinkOut - more resources