Bruce Smyth

A 5-year retrospective of post-separation shared care research in Australia

Abstract In recent years, sweeping changes to the Australian family law system – new services, legal processes, legislation, and a new child support scheme – have been put into place, accompanied by a large research evaluation program. A central plank running through the recent reforms is the need for courts, and those who work with separating parents, to consider whether a child spending equal or else substantial and significant periods of time with each parent would be in his or her best interest and be reasonably practicable. While legal professionals, practitioners and policy analysts wait for the first wave of findings about how the new system is working, now seems like an opportune moment to pause and reflect on the past 5 years of Australian research into shared care. Do we know much more than we did 5 years ago when equal parenting time was first given formal policy prominence? The short answer is ‘Yes’ but the long answer is that our knowledge still remains at a basic level.

Postseparation Fathering: What Does Australian Research Tell Us?⋆

This article summarises Australian research into separated and divorced fathering. It attempts to take stock of what is known in order to identify research gaps for the development of a forward-looking research agenda. My hope is that the piece will encourage more considered empirical attention to postseparation fathering.

Changes in patterns of post-separation parenting over time: A brief review

Abstract In Australia, there has been considerable interest in recent years in the policy and practical implications of sharing parental care and responsibilities after separation – concepts that have culminated in the Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006. While there is now good information on the prevalence, demography and dynamics surrounding different patterns of parenting after separation, not a great deal is known about the extent to which patterns change for individual families over time. This article reviews international and Australian studies that shed light on the stability of post-separation parenting arrangements in relation to shared and sole care. The notion of ‘stability’ is shown to have several dimensions, not all of which are necessarily beneficial to children. The implications ofplacing a greater focus on how post-separation parenting arrangements evolve over time are discussed in the context of child focused dispute resolution and decision-making.

The Distributional and Financial Impacts of the New Australian Child Support Scheme: A 'Before and Day-after Reform' Comparison of Assessed Liability

Abstract Sweeping changes to the Australian Child Support Scheme were recently introduced, featuring a dramatically different system for the calculation of child support. The reforms were intended to respond to ongoing concerns about equity and changes in social expectations and practices in gender, work and parenting. The extent to which the new Scheme is ‘fairer’ and will improve the wellbeing of children and their families needs to be tested. Drawing on published Government data, this article examines the initial distributional impacts of the new Scheme and discusses key policy and research issues arising from these data. At a general level, non-resident parents (mostly fathers) were more likely than resident parents (mostly mothers) to experience net gains under the new Scheme. Low-income families, and resident parents with part-time or casual employment, appear to be among those most likely to have been hardest hit by the recent reforms, though the government modelling suggests that net losses are likely to be

Changes in patterns of post-separation parenting over time: Recent Australian data

20 or less a week in absolute terms. While the paper does not assess behavioural changes resulting from the child support reforms, it is important to keep a watching brief of how the new Scheme is evolving on the ground.

Overnight care patterns following parental separation: Associations with emotion regulation in infants and young children

Abstract This article examines continuity and change in post-separation patterns of parenting across a three-year time span. We analyse longitudinal data from two recent Australian studies: the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey; and the Caring for Children after Parental Separation (CFC) Project. Mother-residence was found to be the most common and the most stable pattern. Though far less common, father-residence also appeared to be reasonably stable. By contrast, shared care was found to be the most fluid of these three parenting configurations.

Therapeutic Divorce Mediation: Strengths, Limitations, and Future Directions

Abstract Children living in a shared-time parenting arrangement following separation (also known as joint physical custody or dual residence) spend equal or near-equal amounts of day and night time with each parent. Little data exist regarding developmental sequelae of such arrangements for infants. The current study examined a theoretically driven question: Are there associations between quantum of overnight stays away from a primary resident parent and the infant’s settledness, or emotion regulation with that parent? Nationally representative parent report data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) were used Three age bands were studied and three level of overnight care contrasted. When parenting style, parental conflict and socio-economic factors were controlled for, greater number of shared overnight stays for the 0–1 year old and the 2–3 year old groups predicted some less settled and poorly regulated behaviours, but none for the 4–5 year old group. Limits of these data are discussed, including application to the individual case. Findings suggest emotional regulation within the primary infant-parent relationship is one useful index of infant adjustment to parenting time arrangements.

Mental Health and the Family Law System

Therapeutic divorce mediation is one of several interventions that hold promise for assisting highly conflicted parents to resolve disputes about their children. But how is it defined, what do we know about it, how is it constrained, and does it work? This article seeks to address these questions by reviewing the divorce mediation–therapy literature, and critically examining the recent Conjoint Mediation and Therapy (CoMeT) initiative, which is currently being trialled in Australia.

Pre-filing Family Dispute Resolution for Financial Disputes: Putting the Cart before the Horse?

Mental health issues permeate the family law system – at least according to anecdote. Yet such issues are rarely mentioned in family-law research, policy, and practice. This article aims to stimulate discussion about the sometimes close and complex links between mental health issues and family law, and suggests a framework for how the family-law system might provide better emotional support to families in transition.

Post-separation patterns of children's overnight stays with each parent: A detailed snapshot

Abstract The Labor federal Attorney-General’s plan, announced in May 2010, to extend the pre-filing requirement to attend family dispute resolution from parenting disputes to financial (property and spousal maintenance) disputes has encouraged us to think about the assistance currently available for separating parents who seek help to resolve financial issues. Our review of services currently available suggests that, despite the key significance of financial issues for separating parents, sources of assistance on these issues across the family law system are limited and where they do exist are usually issue-specific (e.g., child support), are available once a dispute has already crystallized, and primarily relate to the administration of policy rules and legislation rather than providing advice and support. We suggest that for the current position to be improved and the risk of unjust outcomes following any future introduction of compulsory family dispute resolution for financial disputes reduced, further consideration needs to be given to the diverse financial issues faced by separating parents and the range of skills likely to be needed within the sector to help resolve them.