Shared child custody pact means less stress for kids

Shared custody or something similar continues to be best form the emotional stability and happiness for children of separated parents a stockholm university study said.

Jani Turunen, a researcher in demography at the Stockholm University, said children might feel stresses about their parents rarely meeting.

The study also said that who spend most of the time away from one parent can lose essential resources like relatives, friends and money.

The study said that children who live full time with one parent are worse off psychologically than children in shared physical custody.

Shared physical custody is not to be confused with shared legal custody. Shared physical custody means that a child actually lives for equal, or near equal, time with both parents, alternating between separate households.

Shared legal custody gives both parents the legal right to decisions about the child's upbringing, school choices, religion and so on.

Turunen said this study is relevant to today's situation in many European countries, since their situation today might be comparable to the one in Sweden 15 years ago.

Turunen said living with both parents does not mean instability for children. It's just an adaptation to another housing situation, where regular relocation and a good contact with both parents equals to stability.

-ANI