The Intersection of Child Custody Disputes and Children's Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence

Purpose:  To understand child maltreatment investigations that involve child custody disputes in Ontario, Canada. Similar to exposure to IPV, child custody disputes is not stated explicitly in the Ontario child welfare legislation as part of the definition of a child in need of protection but in practice, is being interpreted as a reason to investigate. Research has shown that exposure to high conflict increases the risk of emotional harm to children.

Background: Ontario’s screening tool is used by child welfare workers to determine if referrals are investigated. While Ontario’s child welfare legislation does not explicitly state that child custody dispute is a reason for a child being in need of protection, the screening tool interprets the legislation. According to the screening tool, referrals involving child custody disputes are investigated if there is “significant conflict over custody” because there is a risk of emotional harm.

Methods: The study used the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) data from 2013.  The OIS is a cyclical, cross sectional provincial child welfare study conducted every five years. Characteristics of investigations involving child custody disputes were examined by conducting chi-square tests on key variables, and a logistic regression was performed to examine the influence of child custody disputes and transfers to ongoing services.

Results:  In Ontario in 2013 approximately 12% of child maltreatment or maltreatment-related investigations involve child custody disputes. Investigations involving custody disputes are predominantly referred by a custodial parent (almost 30%). Of the investigations involving child custody disputes, the primary maltreatment concern was exposure to emotional violence (33%). Investigations involving custody disputes when controlling for all other predictors of maltreatment (e.g., previous reports, emotional harm), were less likely to be transferred to ongoing child welfare services.   

Conclusions and Implications:  The continued growth in the proportion of child welfare investigations for exposure to IPV is a significant concern for Ontario.  There is a complicated relationship between child custody disputes and investigations involving intimate partner violence. It appears that investigations involving child custody disputes are being coded as exposure to emotional violence (a maltreatment subtype of exposure to IPV), and are less likely to be transferred to ongoing services.   Policy and practice implications are discussed.