Negative effects of Joint Custody Methodology - Essay Example

This is the objective of this research effort. This study sets out to examine whether there is any difference in the manner in which boys and girls are affected by joint custody arrangements. Bauserman (2002) has noted that some researchers claim that a child can adjust better while living with the same sex parent. Therefore, sole maternal custody may result in boys lacking the male influence, which could conceivably be satisfied through a joint custody arrangement. Therefore, the hypothesis for this research design is that girls may be more negatively affected by a joint custodial arrangement than boys, especially when parental conflict is present.

There is a lack of consensus among researchers on whether joint custody is beneficial or whether it has a negative effect. Furthermore, there has been hardly any research into differences in the manner in which girls and boys may feel the negative effects of joint custody. Therefore, this is an exploratory research study that seeks to examine one empirical sample of participants, in order to determine whether boys are subject to a lower level of negative effect from joint custody arrangements.

This study will therefore be significant in that it will help to shed some light into an area that has not been covered by research. It will add to the pool of existing research on the negative effects of joint custody and can be substantiated by further research on the same subject. This study proposes to include both the parents of at least 25 boys and 25 girls among divorced families where joint custody arrangements are in place. The age group of the participants will range from five to eight, in order to provide for as homogenous a group as possible in terms of age, especially because parental visitation and attention are greater at this age.

Moreover, as many participants as possible will