In order to assess the child welfare impact of policies governing divorced parenting, such as child support orders, child custody and placement regulations, and marital dissolution standards, one must consider their in‡uence not only on the divorce rate but also on spouses’fertility choices and child investments. We develop a continuous time model of marriage, fertility and parenting, with the ...

In U.S. law, biological parents are presumed to be fit custodians of their children, and have a natural right to the custody, care and control of their children. Only if there is family disruption, for example, divorce, or a substantiated report of neglect or abuse, will the state intervene in the privacy of the family. It is after custody is disrupted or disputed, “challenged,” as it were, by ...

Children who have been programmed by one parent to be alienated from the other parent are commonly seen in the context of child-custody disputes. Such programming is designed to strengthen the position of the programming parent in a court of law. Many evaluators use the term parental alienation syndrome (PAS) to refer to the disorder engendered in such children. In contrast, there are evaluator...

This work augments existing household bargaining literature by focusing on locally varied property rights norms in determining spouses’ relative threat points. While similar studies have used spouses' pre-marriage assets as an indicator of bargaining power, I hypothesize that the division of property in case of divorce might provide a more relevant indicator, given the legal predominance of var...

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 R I. DEMOGRAPHICS OF MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD IN 2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 R II. STRUCTURE AND CULTURE OF FAMILY COURT . . . . . . . . . . 208 R A. History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...

What is there about the MMPI scales that make them the most frequently used measures in assessing parents in child custody evaluations? The extensive research detailing the instruments’ validity and effectiveness is highlighted to illustrate the empirical basis of the test in this application. Early research with the MMPI on parental behavior and problems established the test’s utility in under...

The evolving American family presents new psycholegal dilemmas. Recently many publicized landmark cases have involved custody disputes in which settlements turn on the genetic component. Although the court acknowledges the principle of "the best interest of the child" as important to the determination of custody, this interest is not absolutely paramount. Court rulings have taken the position t...