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Joint physical custody (JPC) is an increasingly common care arrangement in which children live about equally with their parents after separation or divorce. This study examined the association between JPC and mothers’ life satisfaction in Belgium, Finland, and Germany. The objective was to determine whether mothers with (asymmetric or symmetric) JPC differed in terms of life satisfaction from mothers with sole physical custody (SPC) and whether there were country-specific differences. Using data from the studies Divorce in Flanders, Survey among Separated Families in Finland, and Family Models in Germany, we estimated OLS regression models for resident mothers in SPC and JPC families with minor children. Results showed significant differences between countries. Mothers in Belgium did not differ in terms of life satisfaction depending on their child’s physical custody arrangement. However, mothers with symmetric JPC had higher life satisfaction than their counterparts with SPC in the Finnish sample, while both asymmetric and symmetric JPC mothers reported higher life satisfaction than SPC mothers in Germany. These differences, however, disappeared after introducing control variables to the regression models. Findings suggest that selection into different physical custody arrangements may explain the positive link between JPC and mothers’ life satisfaction; a finding with far-reaching implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint physical custody (JPC) is an emerging post-separation care arrangement in which children spend considerable periods of time with both of their parents. Although there is some research on JPC that has focused on children's well-being, little is known about how this physical custody arrangement affects fathers' well-being. Therefore, this study investigated the well-being of fathers with symmetric JPC and of non-resident fathers whose children live either mostly or exclusively with their mother. The statistical analysis draws on longitudinal data from waves 4–12 of the German Family Panel (pairfam). Random- and fixed-effects regression models were estimated for 1,372 observations of 389 fathers. The results of the bivariate random-effects models showed that fathers with symmetric JPC reported higher life satisfaction than other fathers. However, the fixed-effects model indicated that these differences were due to positive selection into symmetric JPC. Moreover, the results of the multivariate random- and fixed-effects models showed no statistically significant relationship between physical custody arrangements and fathers' stress, depressiveness, life satisfaction, and general health. Taken together, this study suggests that physical custody arrangements are unrelated to fathers' post-separation well-being while hinting at the relevance of selection processes among post-separation families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processes of intergenerational transmission can have long-lasting negative consequences for children, thereby perpetuating or exacerbating existing social and health inequalities within society. The present study investigates the intergenerational transmission of life satisfaction between parents and their adolescent children. Based on cross-sectional data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), multilevel linear regression models were estimated for 4,154 adolescents at the age of 17 years, and their parents. The statistical analysis provided evidence for the intergenerational transmission of life satisfaction between parents and their children, as parents' levels of life satisfaction were positively and significantly related to levels of life satisfaction in adolescents. Furthermore, mothers' and fathers' supportive parenting partially mediated this relationship, with higher levels of supportive parenting contributing to increased levels of adolescent life satisfaction. However, the results of the analysis revealed no significant differences between same-sex and opposite-sex parent–child dyads in the intergenerational transmission of life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint physical custody, a parental care arrangement in which a child lives with each parent about equally after separation or divorce, is an increasingly common phenomenon in many Western countries. Although attention from family scholars, practitioners, and law professionals is growing, there are hardly any numbers on the prevalence of joint physical custody (JPC). Moreover, studies using large‐scale representative data on the effects of JPC for children's well‐being are still rare. The data for this study come from Health Behaviour in School‐Aged Children (HBSC), a representative cross‐national survey of adolescents in 37 European and North American countries that was conducted in 2002, 2006, and 2010 and included information on students at the ages of 11, 13, and 15 years (N = 92,886). First, results revealed that symmetrical JPC after family dissolution is still very rare in the majority of countries (5% or less), but reaches 10–20% in some countries. Second, adolescents' life satisfaction in nonintact families is higher in symmetric JPC arrangements than in asymmetric care arrangements. However, after controlling for children and family characteristics, the differences disappear. Thus, it is not the symmetric JPC arrangement that induces adolescents' higher life satisfaction, but rather the children and family characteristics that are associated with the choice of such a custody arrangement by separated or divorced parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]