file://C:\Documents and Settings\Dan Hogan\My Documents\FAF Gen

The author meta-analyzed studies comparing child adjustment in joint physical or joint legal custody with sole-custody settings, including comparisons with paternal custody and intact families where possible. Children in joint physical or legal custody were better adjusted than children in sole-custody settings, but no different from those in intact families. More positive adjustment of joint-custody children held for separate comparisons of general adjustment, family relationships, self-esteem, emotional and behavioral adjustment, and divorce-specific adjustment. Joint-custody parents reported less current and past conflict than did sole-custody parents, but this did not explain the better adjustment of joint-custody children. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that joint custody can be advantageous for children in some cases, possibly by facilitating ongoing positive involvement with both parents. Research evidence has clearly demonstrated that, on average, children from divorced families are not as well adjusted as those in intact families, although this relative disadvantage does not necessarily imply clinical levels of maladjustment (Amato & Keith, 1991b; Guidubaldi & Perry, 1985). Joint custody, an arrangement that involves shared legal and/or physical custody of children following divorce of their parents, has increased in popularity as an option in divorce since the 1970s, with many states now having either a preference or presumption for joint legal custody (Bender, 1994). An ongoing debate between proponents and opponents of joint custody has continued since the 1970s as well, with different researchers and authors expressing both strong opposition (e.g., Goldstein, Freud, & Solnit, 1973; Kuehl, 1989) and strong support (e.g., Bender, 1994; Roman & Haddad, 1978). Arguments in favor of joint custody have often focused on benefits for the child of maintaining relationships with both parents. In contrast, opponents have argued that joint custody disrupts needed stability in a child's life and can lead to harm by exposing children to ongoing parental conflict. A variety of theoretical perspectives have been proposed to explain the links between divorce and child adjustment (Hetherington, Bridges, & Insabella, 1998): individual characteristics of the child that might increase vulnerability to maladjustment; the change in family composition and the possible negative effects of father absence in the typical maternal custody situation; the increased economic stress and problems in shifting from a two-parent to a one-parent household; effects of parental distress on the child; and changes in family processes such as conflict and expression of emotion. Buchanan, Maccoby, and Dornbusch (1996) classified factors affecting children's postdivorce adjustment into three categories: loss of a parent, interparental conflict, and diminished parenting (in which the quality of parenting from the custodial parent deteriorates, typically during the first 2 years after divorce). In an analysis of several largescale national samples, McLanahan (1999) found that father absence due to divorce is associated with less school achievement for both boys and girls, more labor market detachment (i.e., unemployment) for boys, and early childbearing for girls. The impact of father absence seemed to be mediated by several variables, including loss of parental resources (less involvement and supervision), loss of financial resources, and loss of community resources (the broader network of social involvement, interaction, and support obtained from each parent). In a meta-analysis of 63 studies of nonresident fathers' role in children's well-being, Amato and Gilbreth (1999) found that authoritative parenting and feelings of closeness between father and child related to well-being. In addition to child support payments, authoritative parenting by the father was the most consistent predictor of outcomes including school achievement, externalizing (behavioral) problems, and internalizing (emotional) problems. Notably, joint custody (and joint physical custody in particular) is relevant to many of the issues raised by Buchanan et al. (1996), Amato and Gilbreth (1999), Hetherington et al. (1998), and McLanahan (1999). For example, ongoing and frequent access to both parents may mitigate potential effects of parental absence as seen in sole-custody Journal of Family Psychology © 2002 by the American Psychological Association March 2002 Vol. 16, No. 1, 91-102 For personal use only--not for distribution. Page 1 of 16 PsycARTICLES Child Adjustment in Joint-Custody Versus Sole-Custody Arrangements: A Meta-Anal... 3/15/2006 file://C:\Documents and Settings\Dan Hogan\My Documents\FAF General\Issues Specific\Custody Arg... households, and access to the households and resources of both parents may reduce economic stress and disadvantage for the child. On the other hand, as critics of joint custody have noted, close ongoing contact with both parents might expose the child to ongoing conflict. Thus, research on custody and adjustment needs to examine not just differences in adjustment across different custodial settings, but also how the factors identified here may relate to any adjustment differences found. It is important to recognize that such comparisons cannot establish a causal role for joint versus sole custody in child adjustment, because such research is necessarily relational rather than experimental in nature. However, it would still be possible to identify which custody type (if any) is associated with better adjustment in different areas, and what variables appear to moderate any relationship found. During the past 20 years, an increasing body of research evidence on the adjustment of children in both types of custody settings has developed, and some reviewers have specifically compared child adjustment in jointand solecustody settings (e.g., Johnston, 1995; Twaite & Luchow, 1996). These reviewers presented varying conclusions: some argued that the research literature unequivocally supports joint custody (Bender, 1994); others argued that variables such as parental conflict are more important than custodial arrangement in determining child outcomes (Twaite & Luchow, 1996) and that joint custody is likely to be inappropriate in high-conflict situations (Johnston, 1995). Still others presented mixed findings in which no single custody arrangement can be assumed to be preferable (Kelly, 1993). These authors conducted traditional narrative literature reviews that attempt to organize and make sense of a literature by reporting on the findings of a number of relevant studies, noting significant and nonsignificant findings, and forming holistic impressions of the literature reviewed. However, such reviews are subject to a number of potential problems: selective citation of studies; reporting results consistent with the reviewer's perspective, combined with minimization or nonreporting of inconsistent results; focusing on statistical significance rather than on the magnitude of the relationship between variables; and failure to examine study characteristics as moderators of results (Johnson, 1989; Rosenthal, 1984). In this review, a meta-analysis of child adjustment in soleand joint-custody situations was conducted in order to avoid some of the problems of traditional literature reviews and to integrate as much of the relevant literature as possible. Meta-analytic reviews integrate research literature in a more systematic and quantitative fashion than traditional narrative reviews (Rosenthal, 1984) by converting different statistical results into a common metric of effect size such as Cohen's (1988) d and systematically examining the effect of various study qualities on the magnitude of the effect. The goal of this review was to locate and meta-analytically integrate reports of child adjustment that directly compare children in joint-custody (legal and/or physical) and in sole-custody settings following divorce. Based on the arguments advanced in favor of joint custody (e.g., Bender, 1994), the literature demonstrating adjustment difficulties for children in sole-custody families when compared to children in intact families (e.g., Amato & Keith, 1991b; Guidubaldi & Perry, 1985), and the relevance of ongoing relationships with both parents to theoretical perspectives on child adjustment in divorce (e.g., Hetherington et al., 1998), it was hypothesized that on average children in jointcustody arrangements would demonstrate better adjustment than children in sole-custody arrangements. Although the suggested hypothesis (and subsequent hypotheses) is directional, all statistical tests were based on appropriately conservative two-tailed probabilities. As noted previously, joint custody cannot be proven to be the causal factor in any such difference. However, such an outcome would be consistent with suggestions that, by providing for an ongoing, close relationship with both parents in a way not possible in sole-custody arrangements that emphasize limited visitation with the noncustodial parents, joint custody may work to overcome the difficulties for the child potentially caused by the parental absence, economic stress, socioeconomic disadvantage, and changes in family processes that might accompany divorce. Exposure to parental conflict may potentially be greater in a joint-custody setting than in a sole-custody setting, and consequently offset some of these possible benefits, but this is a concern that can be examined empirically. Because most sole-custody arrangements are maternal rather than paternal custody, the primary focus of the review was comparison of joint-custody samples with primarily or exclusively sole maternal custody samples. In addition, some studies also included separate paternal custody groups or intact family groups. These groups were used to conduct secondary meta-analyses comparing paternal custody and joint-custody children, and intact-family and jointcustody children. Based on the reasoning that joint custody is more beneficial than harmful because it provides a higher degree of ongoing support and resources from both parents than other custody arrangements, it was hypothesized that joint-custody children would be relatively better adjusted than paternal custody children. It was further hypothesized that joint-custody and intact-family children would be relatively equal in level of adjustment because both groups are Page 2 of 16 PsycARTICLES Child Adjustment in Joint-Custody Versus Sole-Custody Arrangements: A Meta-Anal... 3/15/2006 file://C:\Documents and Settings\Dan Hogan\My Documents\FAF General\Issues Specific\Custody Arg... maintaining ongoing relationships involving frequent contact with both parents. A secondary goal of the current review was to examine how theoretically relevant characteristics of participant populations and of studies might moderate the relationship between custody arrangements and outcomes. For example, some critics of joint custody have expressed concern that this arrangement will expose children to ongoing parental conflict, resulting in more stress and adjustment problems. Thus, wherever possible joint-custody and sole-custody groups were compared on levels of conflict between parents either now or in the past, and conflict level was examined as a moderator of adjustment differences. Although interparental conflict might reduce potential benefits, joint-custody parents may experience lower levels of conflict at the time of divorce than sole-custody parents, which allows them to enter into joint-custody arrangements to begin with. The potential confounding role of conflict is also considered. Other researchers have claimed that children in sole-custody arrangements are better adjusted when living with the same-sex than with the opposite-sex parent (e.g., Warshak, 1986), a variation of the family-composition perspective on the effects of divorce. Given that most sole-custody arrangements involve maternal custody, boys might therefore show more benefit than girls in a comparison of joint and maternal custody. Thus, one variable coded as a potential moderator was the proportion of boys in each study's sole-custody and joint-custody groups. It was hypothesized that the benefits of ongoing involvement with both parents would be robust, such that better adjustment for joint-custody children would be found even when controlling for a variety of participant and study characteristics as potential moderators.