Grandparents' Visitation Rights Legalizing the Ties That Bind

In recent years, statutes granting grandparents legal standing to petition for legally enforcable visitation with their grandchildren--even over parental objections--have been passed in all 50 states. This psycholegal review critically examines the origins of and justifications for this important change in family law, some of the psychological assumptions underlying this policy (e.g., the role of grandparents in chiM development), problems in judicial determinations of whether visitation is in a child's best interests, and both intended and unintended consequences for family functioning arising from this policy. In the end, although efforts to ensure multigenerational supports for children are admirable in the abstract, there are some significant risks in using legal policies for achieving this goal. Directions for further contributions from social scientists, as well as future directions in the evolution of grandparent visitation policy, are outlined. In recent years, changes in family roles and structure have been catalysts for changes in family law. For example, child custody guidelines when parents divorce now are based on a gender-neutral "best interests of the child" standard (replacing the traditional presumption that the mother should have custody) because the role of fathers has broadened and become recognized, and consequently, gender-based distinctions have been challenged (Thompson, 1986). At times, revisions in family law not only reflect changing social conditions but also idealized images of family functioning, such as the current enthusiasm for joint custody, which neglects the potentially deleterious impact of continuing parental conflict on children in such arrangements. When they are well conceived, revisions in family law respond to changing social conditions but also are based on careful judgments of their direct and indirect effects on family members, their potentially unanticipated consequences for family functioning, and problems that may occur in the judicial application of legal guidelines. Poorly designed policies permitting unwarranted legal intervention in family life can be far more damaging than no legal safeguards at all. Moreover, because family law helps to define and institutionalize family structure and roles, well conceived revisions in family law are especially important because they may not only reflect cultural changes in family life but also help to foster them. Recent changes in the legal status of grandparents exemplify some of these complex considerations in changing family policy, and the contributions that can be made by social scientists. During the last l0 to 15 years, legislators in all 50 states have passed laws giving grandparents the right to petition the court for legally enforced visitation privileges with their grandchildren. Moreover, in 1983 the House of Representatives recommended that the National Commission on Uniform State Laws develop a uniform statute ensuring grandparents' visitation rights. This is a significant change from common-law tradition, in which grandparents had almost no rights with respect to their grandchildren except with the consent of the child's parents. Now, under certain conditions, grandparents can have visitation rights enforced over the parent's objections. This change in family policy and the assumptions about family functioning it reflects raise a variety of significant psycholegal concerns that are the subject of this article. They also indicate the kind of dialogue that can occur between policymakers and students of child and family development in shaping the direction