Shared Physical Custody Interdisciplinary Insights in Child Custody Arrangements

This open access book provides an overview of the ever-growing phenomenon of children in shared physical custody thereby providing legal, psychological, family sociological and demographical insights. It describes how, despite the long evolution of broken families, only the last decade has seen a radical shift in custody arrangements for children in divorced families and the gender revolution in parenting which is taking place. The chapters have a national or cross-national perspective and address topics like prevalence and types of shared physical custody, legal frames regulating custody arrangements, stability and changes in arrangements across the life course of children, socio-economic, psychological, social well-being of various family members involved in different custody arrangements. With the book being an interdisciplinary collaboration, it is interesting read for social scientists in demography, sociology, psychology, law and policy makers with an interest family studies and custody arrangements.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Advances in research on Shared Physical Custodyby interdisciplinary approaches.- Part I: Interdisciplinary overviews.- Chapter 2. Alternating homes – a new family form  - The family sociology perspective.- Chapter 3. Psychological Perspectives on Joint Physical Custody.- Chapter 4. A European Model for Harmonizing the Law on Parental Responsibilities.- PART II: Parents and JPC.- Chapter 5. Are “Part-Time Parents” Healthier Parents?  Correlates of Shared Physical Custody in Switzerland.- Chapter 6. Linkages Between Children's Living Arrangements After Divorce and the Quality of the Father-Child Relationship; Father involvement as important underlying mechanism.- Chapter 7. Who cares? An event history analysis of co-parenthood dynamics in Belgium.- PART III: Children and JPC.- Chapter 8. The SOHI: Operationalizing a new model for studying teenagers’ sense of home in post-divorce families.- Chapter 9. The Socioeconomic Gradient of Shared Physical Custody in two Welfare States: comparison between Spain and Sweden.- Chapter 10. Shared parenting after divorce and child outcomes.- PART IV: Dynamic view on JPC.- Chapter 11. The Different Ways of Implementing Shared Physical Custody in the French Context.- Chapter 12. Coparenting interventions and shared physical custody: Insights and challenges.- PATR V: Legal frameworks of Child Support.- Chapter 13. Shared Physical Custody After Parental Separation: Evidence from Germany.- Chapter 14. Shared physical custody and child maintenance arrange-ments: A comparative analysis of 13 countries using a model family approach.

Laura Bernardi is Full Professor of Demography and Life Course Sociology at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland (2008-present), and a member of the Research Council of the Swiss National Research Foundation. She led an Independent Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and was Assistant Professor at the University of Rostock. She had been part of the Board of Directors of the Swiss National Centre for Competence in Research (NCCR) LIVES. Her research interests are in the field of life course and family demography.