Dividing the Child: Social and Legal Dilemmas of Custody
- ISBN-10
- 0674212940
- ISBN-13
- 9780674212947
- Category
- Family & Relationships
- Pages
- 369
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1992
- Publisher
- Harvard University Press
- Authors
- Robert H. Mnookin, Eleanor E. Maccoby
Description
Questions about how children fare in divided families have become as perplexing and urgent as they are common. In this landmark work on custody arrangements, the developmental psychologist Eleanor Maccoby and the legal scholar Robert Mnookin consider these questions and their ramifications for society. The first book to examine the social and legal realities of how divorcing parents make arrangements for their children, Dividing the Child is based on a large, representative study of families from a wide range of socioeconomic levels. Maccoby and Mnookin followed a group of more than one thousand families for three years after the parents filed for divorce. Their findings show how different divorce agreements are reached, from uncontested dealings to formal judicial rulings, and how various custody arrangements fare as time passes and family circumstances change. Numerous examples of joint custody and father custody are considered in this account, along with the mother-custody families more commonly studied; and in most cases the point of view of both parents is presented. Among families in which children spend time in both parental households, the authors identify three different patterns of co-parenting: cooperative, conflicted, and disengaged. They find that although divorcing parents seldom engage in formal legal disputes, they are generally unable to cooperate effectively in raising their children. Full of interesting findings with far-reaching implications, this book will be invaluable to the lawyers, judges, social workers, and parents who, more and more often, must make wise and informed decisions concerning the welfare and care of children of divorce.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Children of the Divide
By Patrick S. TomlinsonNo matter how far humanity comes, it can’t escape its own worst impulses in this far-future science fiction thriller from the author of The Ark A new generation comes of age eighteen years after humanity arrived on the colony planet Gaia.
-
A Family Divided: A Divorced Father's Struggle with the Child Custody Industry
By Robert MendelsonA Harvard-educated physician returned home one day to find a note from his wife stating she had moved out and taken the children with her. The marriage was over, but...
-
The Great Divide
By Suzanne SladeThis rhythmic book introduces readers to division as they conquer bands, tribes, mobs and more.
-
Here's the Plan.: Your Practical, Tactical Guide to Advancing Your Career During Pregnancy and Parenthood
By Allyson DowneyIn the style of #GIRLBOSS or Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office, Here's the Plan is the definitive guide for ambitious mothers, written by one working mother to another.
-
Divided Families: What Happens to Children when Parents Part
By Frank F. Furstenberg, Andrew J. CherlinExplores the effects of divorce on children and their parents.
-
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder
By Richard LouvRichard Mabey, a British writer and naturalist, calls such environments, undeveloped and unprotected, the “unofficial countryside.” Such habitats are often rich with life and opportunities to learn; in a single decade, Pyle recorded ...
-
The Child in Time
By Ian McEwanHe himself had none at all.” In The Child in Time, acclaimed author Ian McEwan “sets a story of domestic horror against a disorienting exploration in time” producing “a work of remarkable intellectual and political sophistication” ...
-
George
By Alex Gino"Hey folks, just a reminder that I made a huge mistake in the title of my first book, GEORGE.
-
Child of the Divide
By Sudha BhucharAn emotionally charged story of love and loss set during India's partition.When his fingers slip away from his father's hand, one boy's destiny changes forever.In the chaos of border crossing...
-
Divided by Borders: Mexican Migrants and Their Children
By Joanna DrebyProbing the experiences of migrant parents, children in Mexico, and their caregivers, Joanna Dreby offers an up-close and personal account of the lives of families divided by borders.