Shared Parenting: Child Custody, Access, and Parental Responsibility

The most recent research strongly supports a shift away from the "one size its all," "winner take all" sole custody framework toward the notion of shared parental responsibility.

Prof. Edward Kruk (Canada) has published a definitive paper on the merits and policy for shared parenting.

PDF copies are attached and the text of the summary is included in the box below.

The papter is entitled "Child Custody, Access, and Parental Responsibility: The Search for a Just and Equitable Standard", and was written by professor so social work Edward Kruk, M.S.W., Ph.D., at The University of British Columbia. It is published by Fatherhood Involvement Research Alliance (FIRA), December 2008.

He proposes a four-pillar approach to child custody determination:

1. Harm Reduction: A rebuttable legal presumption of joint physical custody after divorce

2. Treatment: Parenting plans, mediation and intervention / support in high conflict cases

3. Prevention: Shared parenting education and judicial determination in cases of established abuse, along with enforcement of shared parental responsibility orders

4. Enforcement: Judicially-determined arrangements in cases where family violence is a factor
The most recent research strongly supports a shift away from the "one size its all," "winner take all" sole custody framework toward the notion of shared parental responsibility.

The paper provides an empirical foundation for, and a step-by-step process, for implementation of an equal parenting bill.

The paper examines the issues, surveys approaches in UK, USA, Sweden and Australia, examines Canadian Child custody legislation at a provincial level, reviews Canadian efforts to make changes, and critiques the traditional sole custody approach as a basis leading up to the universal four-pillar approach for Equal Parenting.

The full paper, a summary and a Powerpoint presentation, can be download from the following URLs (and are attached below)

• The full paper (101 pages with over a 100 references)
• The Executive Summary (9 pages, text in the box below)
• Paternal Responsibility and Parenting After Divorce (PPT, 93kb)

Shared Parenting Facts and Fiction by Dr. Linda Nielsen

The Case for Shared Parenting and Joint Physical Custody - It's About The Kids!

This list will be updated on a regular basis as new sources are compiled. If you have a resource that is not listed here please email us at [admin at achildsright dot net] so that we can promptly add it.

Children have a fundamental right to be loved, guided, nurtured and educated equally by both fit and willing parents - to deny this is child abuse.

Shared Parenting Facts and Fiction by Dr. Linda Nielsen Professor of Women Studies and ACFC President

Download SharedParentingFactsandFiction.pdf