"Co-Parents," "Bird's Nests," and the "Four-way Sleepover".

The number of parents who share physical custody of their children (also referred to as "joint" custody) has grown steadily over the past three decades. There have been several developments, in particular the passage of state laws in the 1990s favoring shared legal and physical custody in child custody decisions, which suggest that the growth in shared physical custody will continue and will even quicken in pace. Yet, very little known about the specifics of these trends and their implications for family dynamics. This paper addresses three main questions that will be of interest to social scientists studying child custody and children's living arrangements. First, what is the current prevalence of children in the U.S. with "two homes" (i.e., children whose parents have shared physical custody of them)? Second, what is the current status of state laws with respect to decisions about the legal and physical custody of children? And, third, what is life like for modern families in which the parents share physical custody of their children and how useful are our current data sources for understanding family dynamics in these new households? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]