Original ResearchSelf-esteem in children in joint physical custody and other living arrangements
Introduction
An increasing number of children in the Western world have over the last decades entered a new type of life circumstance after a parental separation. The term joint physical custody (JPC) implies that a child lives alternatively and equally much with both parents, moving between their respective homes for example every other week.1, 2, 3 In Sweden, it is particularly common that children share their time between the parents' two homes after a separation and the share in JPC has risen from around 1% of the children with separated parents in the mid 1980s to nearly 40% in 2011.4, 5 About 10% of all children aged 12–15 years had JPC in Sweden in 2009, while only a slightly larger proportion, 13%, lived exclusively with one of the parents, mostly with the mother.6 The share of children spending half the time in each parent's home is even higher among recently separated families, reaching 50%. It has therefore been argued that JPC constitutes a new norm among Swedish parents.7
The share of children in JPC is rising also in other countries. In Norway, it concerns 25% of the children with separated parents,8 and in Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and some parts of the United States, around 20%.2, 3, 9, 10 In most European countries, as well as in the United States, the most common living arrangement for children with separated parents is however still single maternal care.11 Factors such as proportion of women in the labor force, family legislation, and cultural views on gender roles in parenthood contribute to explain cross-country differences in post-separation custody forms.12
Research on children's adjustment and well-being after a parental divorce has established higher risks for emotional problems and social maladjustment than among those with parents living together.13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 Pre-separation characteristics such as lower relationship satisfaction and higher conflict levels may contribute to explain the higher risks as well as the potential emotional crises associated with the separation.20 The stressful experience of the separation for a child can be moderated by continued parental involvement and support.21 Parents' abilities to stay involved in their children's lives may however depend on factors such as parental conflict level and cooperation as well as parenting time schedules, parental ill health and lack of necessary economic resources.
The drawbacks of living in JPC have in an interview study with children been described as, for example, logistics such as traveling between the homes, not having one's personal items and difficulties keeping in contact with friends.22 Living in two homes and family cultures may also impose stress on children.23, 24 These drawbacks have however been argued to be outweighed by the continued involvement of both parents on an everyday basis.25, 26
Several studies have shown that children in JPC report more satisfaction with their relationships to, and support from, parents (in particular fathers) than children who live only or mostly with one parent after a separation.6, 11, 27, 28, 29, 30 High paternal support and control have been shown to positively influence children's well-being.27, 31 Therefore, this may, at least partly, contribute to explain the higher well-being and social adjustment and lower frequencies of health problems for children in JPC compared with single care solutions.6, 28, 29, 30, 32 Another explanation may be the lessened risk of loss of social and material capital from one of the parents.33 A high frequency of parent-child contact does however not with necessity imply high parenting quality and high quality has been found more important for children's positive development than actual time spent together.21 Still, parenting schedule arrangements of every second weekend and holidays with the non-resident parent may not give children sufficient access to everyday support and control.
Self-esteem is the level of satisfaction with one's own behavior and self and the disposition to experience oneself as being competent and expecting a bright future.34 It has been argued to consist of both self-efficacy and self-respect and is a positive indicator of well-being.35 Previous research has shown that a high level of self-esteem, or rather the avoidance of low self-esteem, is important for a person's well-being throughout the life span.34, 36 It has also been argued that the absence of problem behaviors or risk factors is not the same as presence of positive behaviors and protective factors, making the use of positive welfare indicators such as self-esteem an important contribution to the child well-being literature that has for a long time been dominated by negative indicators.37
Self-esteem is constituted during childhood and adolescence, in close relationship with significant others, like parents.35, 38, 39, 40 High levels of parental support have been found to be associated with higher self-esteem in adolescents39, 40 and secure attachment relationships between children and parents are associated with more perceived self-worth.41
In this study, we took advantage of the comparatively high occurrence of JPC in Sweden to compare self-esteem in children in JPC with nuclear families and those living mostly or only with one parent. We did this by using nationally representative data on 4823 Swedish children 10–18 years of age.
Section snippets
Methods
Data were obtained from Statistics Sweden's yearly Survey of Living Conditions (ULF), collected in the years 2007–2011. The survey is a nationally representative sample of the Swedish population aged 18 to 84 years and includes child supplements with data collected from children aged 10–18 years living in the household of the main respondent. The rate of non-responding children was between 26% and 37.2% during the years 2007–2011. For the purpose of this study, selected data from the children
Descriptive statistics
Of the 4780 children in the study, 77% lived with both parents in a nuclear family, 8% in a JPC arrangement, 14% lived only with one parent and another 2% mostly with one parent, as presented in Table 1. The percentage of children in JPC hardly varies with age, whereas the share of children who lives only with one parent increases with age. More mothers than fathers, 56% vs. 44%, responded to the survey and these more often lived in nuclear families or had their children in single care. We also
Discussion
In this study, investigating self-esteem in 4823 10–18 year olds, we found that children in JPC arrangements reported significantly higher self-esteem compared with those living only with one parent after a parental separation. There were no significant differences in self-esteem between those in nuclear families, JPC, or living mostly with one parent.
As self-esteem has been shown to be constituted in close relationship with parents,40, 42 the association between higher self-esteem and living
Ethical approval
The study was conducted within a research program approved by the local Research and Ethics Committee in Stockholm, Sweden (Dnr 2012/1184-31/5).
Funding
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 320116 for the research project FamiliesAndSocieties, by The Swedish Research Council for Health, Working life and Wellfare (2012-1736), The Wenner-Gren Foundations and Länsförsäkringsbolagens
References (47)
- et al.
Why should they live more with one of us when they are children to us both?: Parents' motives for practicing equal joint physical custody for children aged 0–4
Child Youth Serv Rev
(2016) - et al.
Changes in psychiatric problems and service use among 8-year-old children: a 16-year population-based time-trend study
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
(2008) - et al.
Trajectories of global self-esteem development during adolescence
J Adolesc
(2012) - et al.
Parenting styles and self-esteem
Proc Soc Behav Sci
(2011) Samvaer og borns trivsel [Joint custody and children's well-being]
(2004)- et al.
Exploring a new family form—the shared time family
Int J Law Policy Fam
(2008) - et al.
Joint physical custody in the Netherlands and the well-being of children
J Divorce Remarriage
(2009) 51 Fortsatt föräldrar – om ansvar, ekonomi och samarbete för barnets skull. [Continuous parenthood: about responsibilities, economy and cooperation for the sake of the child]
(2011)Olika familjer lever på olika sätt: om barns boende och försörjning efter en separation
(2014)- et al.
Living in two homes—a Swedish national survey of wellbeing in 12 and 15 year olds with joint physical custody
BMC Public Health
(2013)
Characteristics of parents with shared residence and father sole custody. Evidence from Norway 2012. Norway
Delebørn i tal. En analyse af skilsmissebørns samvær baseret på SFI's børneforløbsundersøgelse
Characteristics of joint physical custody families in Flanders
Demogr Res
Joint physical custody and communication with parents: a cross-national study of children in 36 Western countries
J Comp Fam Stud
Children's living arrangements following separation and divorce: insights from empirical and clinical research
Fam Process
Life satisfaction among children in different family structures: a comparative study of 36 Western societies
Child Soc
Children of divorce in a Scandinavian welfare state: are they less affected than US children?
Scand J Psychol
Residence arrangements and well-being: a study of Norwegian adolescents
Scand J Psychol
Fifteen years after parental divorce: mental health and experienced life-events
Nord J Psychiat
The effects of divorce and marital discord on adult children's psychological well-being
Am Sociol Rev
Growing up with a single parent: what hurts, what helps
Nonresident fathers and children's well-being: a meta-analysis
J Marriage Fam
Cited by (22)
Custody (child)
2023, Encyclopedia of Mental Health, Third Edition: Volume 1-3How do children and adolescents of separated parents sleep? An investigation of custody arrangements, sleep habits, sleep problems, and sleep duration in Sweden
2021, Sleep HealthCitation Excerpt :Thus, our first hypothesis was partially rejected, but the magnitudes of the effects were small. In conclusion, the results are in line with research on other health outcomes that has demonstrated found similar outcomes between shared physical custody and nonseparated 2-parent families.24,25 The second hypothesis, that children and adolescents in sole or nonequally shared custody will present worse sleep patterns, was confirmed for sole maternal custody and nonregular sharing of physical custody (living with one parent “sometimes” or “almost never”).
The effectiveness of a co-parenting intervention on parenting stress among divorced Iranian adults
2021, Children and Youth Services ReviewCitation Excerpt :Studies have demonstrated that children of divorced parents compared with those from nondivorced families could suffer from more psychological distress (Amato, 2014; Clarke-Stewart, Vandell, McCartney, Owen, & Booth, 2000), lower self-esteem (Turunen, Fransson, & Bergström, 2017), depression, anxiety, aggression and school dropout (Amato & Keith, 1991), delinquency (Amato & Keith, 1991; Clarke-Stewart et al., 2000) and academic failure (Clarke-Stewart et al., 2000). The negative effect of parental divorce on children can be moderate when both parents are involved in a co-parenting arrangement (Hadfield, Amos, Ungar, Gosselin, & Ganong, 2018; Turunen et al., 2017). Co-parenting aims to increase divorced parents' collaboration and help them raise their children together and fulfill their responsibilities as parents (Feinberg, 2002).
Are women from man-older unions economically disadvantaged following separation? Sweden 1997–2015
2024, Acta Sociologica (United Kingdom)Parental Incarceration and Children’s Living Arrangements in the United States
2023, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal