Child Custody: Reform, Research, and Common Sense: Testimony to U.S. Commission
In April 1995, Dr. Warshak was invited to testify before a hearing on custody and visitation conducted by the U.S. Commission on Child and Family Welfare. His remarks offer a detailed, but concise and clear review of the major conclusions reached by divorce researchers and seven specific recommendations to maximize the well-being of children after divorce.
Among the topics covered are the harm caused by conventional approaches to custody and Continue reading →
Keeping Fathers Involved
This essay, based on remarks to the American Orthopsychiatry Association in 1994, focuses on the role mental health professionals play in perpetuating gender stereotypes that interfere with healthy father-child relationships after divorce.
Dr. Warshak analyzes the biases that support such practices as Continue reading →
Joint Custody Is Feasible
This 1993 essay, based on remarks delivered to the Association of Family & Conciliation Courts, defends joint custody as realistic and beneficial. It discusses the facts that are often ignored by joint custody’s detractors, and describes why some social scientists are reluctant to support joint custody.
Dr. Warshak illustrates conventional custody’s harmful impact on children by analyzing a parody Continue reading →
The Custody Revolution: Beyond Fathers’ Rights and Mothers’ Rights (transcript of speech)
This speech inspired a standing ovation from the audience at the 1993 national conference of the Children’s Rights Council. It begins by describing the context in which the Texas Custody Research Project originated, and then recaps the project’s main findings, including “the gender connection.”
Dr. Warshak discusses the type of fundamental changes he advocates and, in a more personal Continue reading →
Father Custody and Child Development: A Review and Analysis of Psychological Research
This 1986 journal article begins with a discussion of three different strategies used by social scientists to study father-custody families, and analyzes the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.
The next section reviews the results of research comparing children’s functioning in father-custody and mother custody homes. Children’s reactions to the separation are examined as Continue reading →
