As Ohio parents know, divorce can change the amount of time a parent gets to spend with his or her child. This is why figuring out a child custody arrangement that everyone can live with is of the utmost importance. New studies are finding that children who split their time between parents are coming out on top.
As Science Daily reports, a study of more than 3,600 3 to 5-year-old children in Sweden found that those who were raised in joint custody had fewest psychological and behavioral problems reported. In fact, the study which surveyed the parents and teachers of the children found that parents reported no more issues at all for children who were being raised by separated parents compared to children whose parents remained together. On the other hand, children who were raised only or mostly by one parent were most likely to have issues reported by both parents and teachers. The teachers reported the lowest rates of problems in children whose parents were still together. This is contrary to the popular belief that young children find moving between homes too stressful and suffer adverse effects from joint custody.
Similar findings were reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which reported that a review of 44 previous divorce studies found that children who had adequate time to form strong relationships with both parents had the best outcomes. In fact, even when the parents had a lot of conflict with one another or did a poor job co-parenting, the children who were given ample time with both their parents fared best of all.
