(cache) Divorce Statistics - How Is Child Custody Decided?

How Is Child Custody Decided?

Custody arrangements desired by the parents
	Mothers want	Fathers want:
Sole possession to mother	82%	29%
Sole possession to father	3%	33%
Joint possession	15%	35%
Other	-	3%

How is child custody decided?

51% agreed on their own
29% settled without third party involvement
11% decided during mediation
5% resolved differences after a custody evaluation
4% went to trial (of the 4% that initiated litigation, only 1.5% actually completed it)

Child custody outcomes: Mediation and trial
	When parents mediate	When parents go to evaluation or trial
Sole possession to mother	63%	44%
Sole possession to father	6%	11%
Joint possession	25%	40%
Other	6%	5%

Where do children initially reside when the parents first separate?

67% of the time they remain with the mother in the marital home.

How prevalent was the single-parent family by the mid-1990s?

7.6 million mothers were raising children without the father
1.3 million fathers were raising children without the mother

Trend: "In 1970, 2.8 million single mothers had custody of their children. By 1994 the figure had almost tripled. The number of fathers with sole custody practically quadrupled during that same time period."

Footnote 1: Child Custody Made Simple, ©1997-2000, Webster Watnik, pages 32-40 — source: "Dividing the Child," Eleanor Maccoby and Robert Mnookin, Harvard University Press, 1992 (study conducted in California). Watnik states that these results are very similar to those in a national study.

► List of all Divorce Statistics

May we help you mediate parenting time?

Serving
Southeast Michigan
since 1983

Divorce Reality
Group

w w w . d i v o r c e P e e r s . c o m

version V—021

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%