Promoting Cooperative Parenting: Programs and Prospects

Abstract:     
We know that children profit from the care of two involved and cooperative parents, but can family law effectively promote these conditions? This article briefly describes and evaluates current strategies to promote parental involvement and cooperation, including altered custody standards, parent education, and initiatives aimed at enhancing family stability and harmony. It concludes that, in order to effectively promote stable, cooperative parenting, lawmakers will need to pursue many different strategies. The evidence suggests that no single strategy has the capacity to effectively promote cooperative, involved parenting after parents have separated; the evidence similarly suggests that no single strategy can channel childbearing and rearing into relationships with optimal prospects of stability and low conflict. Even a multi-strategy initiative will confront many obstacles - demographic, logistical, emotional - that will impede its effectiveness. The magnitude of the behavioral shifts that a coordinated multi-strategy initiative might produce thus remains unclear.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 14

Keywords: marriage, divorce, child custody

JEL Classification: J12, J18

Accepted Paper Series