“Lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
As you watch the PA HB1397 debate on shared parenting reform you will see arguments made on both sides of the argument. However, one aspect not debated is the weight of those arguments. How significant of an impact does shared parenting make on domestic violence? What does it do children’s outcomes? What kind of an impact does it have on fatherhood?
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/697580
What you’ll find from the referenced article is summed up here:
I analyzed two such entanglements. On the one hand was the debt of imprisonment, or all the ways incarceration bred paternal debt and worsened men’s poverty. On the other was the imprisonment of debt, or all the ways support enforcement led to criminal justice involvement and undermined men’s desistance from crime. Together, both entanglements created feedback loops of disadvantage that complicated men’s social reintegration and put pressure on their familial networks, often to the breaking point.
But if you have time, read the entire 60+ page article. In essence, once an impoverished father enters the system, there is no way out.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32293039/
Second, adolescents’ life satisfaction in nonintact families is higher in symmetric JPC [Joint Physical Custody) arrangements than in asymmetric care arrangement.
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/fam-16191.pdf
Children in joint physical or legal custody were better adjusted than
children in sole-custody settings, but no different from those in intact families. More positive
adjustment of joint-custody children held for separate comparisons of general adjustment,
family relationships, self-esteem, emotional and behavioral adjustment, and divorce-specific
adjustment. Joint-custody parents reported less current and past conflict than did sole-custody
parents, but this did not explain the better adjustment of joint-custody children. The results
are consistent with the hypothesis that joint custody can be advantageous for children in some
cases, possibly by facilitating ongoing positive involvement with both parents.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1732362/pdf/v057p00993.pdf – Divorced and separated men are more than two fold likely to commit suicide.
Additional statistics regarding custody outcomes can be found here: https://www.lackeypllc.com/blog/2019/november/single-fathers-single-mothers-and-child-custody-/