Prevalence and Characteristics of Custody Arrangements in Switzerland

Magdalena Spasic , University of Lausanne
Laura Bernardi, Université de Lausanne

Objective With this study we aim at providing an overview of custody arrangements in Switzerland. First, we assess the prevalence of lone physical custody (LPC), equal shared physical custody (equal SPC) and unequal shared physical custody (unequal SPC). Second, we analyze the association between different family, parental, former parental couple, child characteristics and custody arrangements. And finally, we examine child well-being differentials between custody arrangements. Data and methods We draw on the FamyCH data to assess the prevalence of custody arrangements and for the subsequent analyses. The FamyCH survey is a national online survey in Switzerland that targeted families with at least one child aged 0-15 (the target child) living in different custody arrangements including lone custody, shared custody and non separated families. We employ descriptive analyses and multinomial logistic regressions using the type of custody arrangement as the dependent variable (LPC, equal SPC and unequal SPC). We then explore through linear regressions the association of different custody arrangements with children well-being indicators (including the SDQ-25). Preliminary results Preliminary findings indicate that there is still a selection effect in Switzerland with SPC parents reporting higher education levels, higher relationship quality with their children, closer distance and more egalitarian division of childcare before separation despite the recent legislative changes aiming to encourage SPC. Well-being analyses indicate that SPC children tend to generally have similar outcomes to children living in non-separated families but better outcomes than children in LPC arrangements.

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 Presented in Session 119. Child Custody and Children's Outcomes