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Can Joint Custody Arrangements Be Beneficial For Children?

Even if you count yourself among the lucky few who are able to maintain cordial relationships with their former spouses following a Florida divorce, you may still find yourself struggling in its aftermath. This may prove especially true if you are also coming to terms with a new custody arrangement, as it can be tremendously difficult to go from sharing the same home with your children to sleeping in a different place at night.

While a joint-custody arrangement may not have initially been what you wanted, it may help you to recognize that, per Time, joint-custody arrangements can actually prove highly beneficial for children of divorce. When compared against other kids who have divorced parents, but who live with only one parent or the other, kids whose parents shared custody were less stressed and less likely to experience a broad range of psychosomatic issues than their peers.

After examining national data concerning about 150,000 students in either sixth or ninth grades, researchers found that children who spent time living with both parents following a divorce experienced substantially fewer emotional and health problems than those who lived with only one parent. Children whose parents had joint-custody arrangements were less likely to experience trouble sleeping or concentrating, and they were also less likely to suffer headaches or stomachaches.

On the flip side, kids who lived exclusively with their mothers or fathers were more prone to feeling sad, tense and dizzy, although the living arrangements appear to affect boys and girls differently to some extent. Girls who lived with only one parent were more likely to experience psychosomatic problems than boys, with females experiencing feelings of sadness more than any other psychosomatic issue.

This information about how kids can benefit from joint-custody arrangements is educational, only, and is not a substitute for legal advice.

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