Joint Physical Custody and Parenting Competence Among Noncustodial Fathers with Low Income

Background and Purpose: Joint physical custody (JPC), in which children spend a significant amount of time living with each parent, is increasingly common following divorce. Estimates from Wisconsin find that for divorces filed in 2010, half of all cases had a shared-placement arrangement (Meyer, Cancian, and Cook, 2017). The evidence suggests that, on average, JPC may have positive impacts on a range of children’s outcomes, including lower levels of stress, stronger parent-child relationships, and improved well-being. There has been less attention to how JPC impacts parents, however, and existing evidence tends to be based on select samples of low-conflict, high-socioeconomic status couples. Compared to living primarily with the mother, JPC may decrease the time pressure faced by mothers while increasing the time pressure faced by fathers. However, little is known about the impact of JPC for socioeconomically disadvantaged couples who may have higher levels of conflict or severe financial constraints. This study seeks to understand whether JPC of children affects low-income fathers’ feelings of efficacy. Understanding how JPC may impact paternal efficacy has important implications for social workers working with fathers and separated families.

Methods: We use unique data from the National Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration which include JPC and parenting measures from noncustodial fathers who were behind or at risk of becoming behind on their child support payment (N=7,885). Our independent variable is a measure of JPC, defined as spending more than 30% of the time (e.g., 11 nights per month) with any child, based on a self-report of the number of nights spent with the child in the last 30 days. Our dependent variable is a self-reported global parenting measure; respondents rate their parenting on a 4-category scale from 1 (not very good) to 4 (excellent). We use descriptive analyses to describe the pattern of self-reported parenting competence by the JPC status and regression analyses (including ordered logistic regression and OLS) to account for potential confounding characteristics. We further examine whether impacts are heterogenous by child’s age.

Results: About one in ten fathers practiced JPC. Preliminary results suggest that having any child in a JPC arrangement is statistically significantly associated with higher parenting competence; 34% of fathers with shared custody describe themselves as excellent parents compared with 20% of fathers without shared custody. Results hold in multivariate regression analyses; on average, JPC is associated with a 1.2-point increase on the global parenting scale (p<.001).

Conclusion and Implications: Findings suggest that JPC may increase paternal self-efficacy. Understanding this connection may be beneficial for social work practitioners supporting low-income noncustodial fathers. At the macro-level, this study can help inform policymakers interested in child and family well-being. Adopting family policy that may encourage JPC could have a beneficial effect on both parents and children.