Joint and Sole Custody Mothers: Implications for Research and Practice

The authors evaluated the ability of a conceptual model encompassing variables related to parenting, father involvement, and mother's resources to predict custody type for divorced mothers. Findings revealed that parenting stress, coparental relationship quality, custody satisfaction, and age of children in the house hold were predictive of custody type. Results indicated that mothers with joint custody re ported lower levels of parenting stress, better coparental relations, and had older children than did solecustody mothers. Of particular interest was the finding that higher levels of custody satisfaction were associated with solecustody status. The psychological meanings parents attach to legal custody status are explored along with how the organizational properties of custody status might differ for mothers and fathers. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.