New research states that spending time living with both parents in spite of a divorce is better for the children's general well-being.
Study author and researcher Malin Bergström states that the study opposes the current assumption that shared-custody situations are more stressful for kids, compared to the stress that comes from the social upheaval and general lack of stability moving between two parents can bring.
In order to see whether kids who lived part-time with both parents were more stressed compared to those who live with just one parent, the researchers looked at national data from almost 150,000 students (ages 12 - 15 years old). They took into consideration the kids' psychosomatic symptoms, including sleep problems, difficulty concentrating, loss of appetite, headaches, stomach aches, and feeling tense, sad or dizzy. Subsequently, they found that 69 percent of the kids lived in nuclear families, 19 percent spent time living with both parents, and approximately 13 percent lived with only one parent.
Kids from nuclear families reported the least psychosomatic problems, but an interesting discovery was that the kids who lived with both separated parents had significantly less problems than those who lived with only one parent.
From these results, Bergström says that from a stress-related perspective, the everyday contact with both parents seems to be more important than living in two homes. At the same time, having access to both parents doubles the number of resources the kid is exposed to, which can include social circles, family and material goods, and even money. Children might feel more vulnerable and stressed if they only have access to one.
Joint-custody parenting has risen dramatically in Sweden in the last couple of decades. Only one percent of children of divorced parents lived in joint-custody arrangements in 1980, the number jumped to 40 percent in 2010. In the U.S., shared parenting is less common, with the numbers at approximately less than 20 percent.
The study was published online last Monday in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
