Digest #4: Important Factors for Access and Visitation Schedules
Whiteside, M.F. and Becker, B.J. (2000). Parental Factors and Young Child's Post-divorce Adjustment: A Meta-Analysis with Implications for Parenting Arrangements. Journal of Family Psychology, 14, 5-26.
This article reviews and analyzes the literature regarding visitation and possession schedules and their affects on children. This study is one of the first to take account of a father's pre-separation involvement with his children.
Here are the highlights:
- High cooperation between parents is associated with high frequency of father visitation, increased quality of the father-child relationship and children's improved social skills.
- When parents are not cooperative, children still have increased social and cognitive competence if they maintain good relations with each parent.
- Fathers who are highly involved with their children before separation visited more frequently and were more likely to be cooperative and supportive of the mothers after divorce.
- Children are adversely affected when their parents have conflict. However, the reason seems to be that the conflict adversely affects the parent and reduces his/her energy and ability to parent the children. This, then has a direct and negative effect on the children.
The authors note that, "on the basis of the patterns emerging from our analysis, the discussion with parents needs to shift from a preoccupation with the number of overnights to a more complicated assessment of the parenting environment"(p.21). When child custody evaluators are asked to make recommendations, in situations where both parents wish to be equally involved in child rearing, the investigation should include an evaluation of the role of each parent before the separation.
They conclude that, "results from the total model suggest that the relationships with the child developed by both father and mother cannot be viewed independently of the quality of the parental alliance and the time sharing schedule"(p.20).
Finally, the authors recommend: "templates for decision making need to include assessment of the degree of parental cooperation, the nature and intensity of parental conflict, the quality of each parent's relationship with the children, and the likelihood that a schedule will include enough time with each parent to provide the opportunity for a meaningful relationship to be sustained"(p.23).
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This study is important because it emphasizes continuity in parent-child relationships. That is, pre-separation parenting patterns are likely to predict post-divorce involvement. A limitation of this study is that it only looked at fathers who were already involved with their children and who sustained those relationships post-divorce. Their conclusions may not apply to those situations in which fathers who were not particularly involved with their children pre-separation wish to become more involved after a separation.
The authors note that maternal warmth decreases with increased frequency of father visits when there is conflict between the parents.
One interpretation of this may be that the energy needed to sustain conflict, as well as greater amount of time that it takes away from being with one's child, may negatively impact the self-image of a custodial parent as a caregiver. A reduced self-image may lead the caregiver to feel increased anger toward the other parent as well as possibly withdrawing emotional warmth from the children.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It is important to determine the pre-separation involvement of each parent when considering possession and visitation schedules.
However, the assessment must be made within the context of the pre-existing family structure as well as how it will change after divorce. For example, when a family has maintained a traditional family structure before the separation, it is not uncommon for traditional and conscientious fathers to want a greater role in child rearing than they had previously maintained. In such cases, their relative lack of previous involvement due to commitment to work should not be held against them when they are want to be more involved fathers after the divorce.
Attorneys should closely scrutinize reports from court appointed evaluators to insure that pre-separation relationships between children and parents are thoroughly evaluated. The report should also closely evaluate the current relationship of the children with each parent as well as the parents' ability to minimize the post-separation conflict.