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Overnight care patterns following parental separation: associations with emotion regulation in infants and young children

journal contribution
posted on 2013-12-01, 00:00 authored by Jennifer McintoshJennifer Mcintosh, B M Smyth, M Kelaher
Children living in a shared-time parenting arrangement following separation (also known as joint physical
custody or dual residence) spend equal or near-equal amounts of day and night time with each parent. Little data exist
regarding developmental sequelae of such arrangements for infants. The current study examined a theoretically driven
question: Are there associations between quantum of overnight stays away from a primary resident parent and the infant’s
settledness, or emotion regulation with that parent? Nationally representative parent report data from the Longitudinal
Study of Australian Children (LSAC) were used. Three age bands were studied and three levels of overnight care contrasted.
When parenting style, parental confl ict and socio-economic factors were controlled for, greater number of shared overnight
stays for the 0–1 year old and the 2–3 year old groups predicted some less settled and poorly regulated behaviours, but
none for the 4–5 year old group. Limits of these data are discussed, including application to the individual case. Findings
suggest emotional regulation within the primary infant–parent relationship is one useful index of infant adjustment to
parenting time arrangements.

History

Journal

Journal of family studies

Volume

19

Issue

3

Pagination

224 - 239

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Location

Abingdon, Eng.

ISSN

1322-9400

eISSN

1839-3543

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal article

Copyright notice

2013, eContent Manegement