Spouses in New Jersey going through a divorce often find it difficult to agree on many things, but most of them are able to put their differences to one side when it comes to the welfare of their children. However, what kind of living arrangements provide the most beneficial environment for the children of a divorced couple has been a contentious question.
Many child psychology experts believe that children fare better when they live with one parent. They believe that shared child custody arrangements involve constant upheaval and place undue stress on children. However, a study published on April 27 in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health concluded that this line of thinking may be wrong. Researchers studied data concerning about 150,000 6th and 9th grade students who live in conventional families as well as in single and joint custody situations.
While the students living in a traditional family environment demonstrated the fewest psychological problems, researchers were surprised to learn that children who lived with both of their parents fared better than those who lived with only one. The researchers concluded that the benefits of regular communication with both parents more than made up for the negative aspects of frequently moving between homes. While shared parenting is still quite rare in the United States, experts believe that it will become more popular as time goes on and more research highlights the benefits of this kind of arrangement.
An experienced family law attorney will likely be familiar with how easily negotiations during a divorce can become heated. However, the decisions made by divorcing spouses can have long-term consequences, and this is particularly true of child custody arrangements. A family law attorney may be able to provide input from a more moderate prospective and help spouses to resolve their differences by establishing common ground.
