When you and your spouse decide that you no longer wish to share your lives, you are undoubtedly going to have to work through numerous issues while you disentangle your experiences from one another’s. If you share a child, you are also going to have to determine how you plan to raise that child once you no longer live in the same home.
Unless your ex is abusive, has substance abuse issues or is otherwise unfit to care for your shared child, you may decide that having both parents maintain an active presence in his or her life is ideal. Statistically, you may be right. According to Time, children who have divorced parents, but who grow up spending time in the homes of each parent, often fare better in many vital areas than their peers who live exclusively with one parent or the other.
Research details
To help determine how children with divorced parents fare in numerous custodial situations, researchers examined a group of about 150,000 12- and 15-year-olds. After doing so, researchers found that kids with divorced parents whose parents shared custody over them were less likely to experience several psychosomatic health problems than their peers who lived with only one parent.
Research findings
While female children of divorce were more likely to experience stress-related issues than males, male and female children of divorce were less likely to experience regular stomachaches or headaches than their peers who lived in single-parent homes. They were also less likely to say they felt sad or tense, and they were less prone to sleep issues as well.
These findings refute a common belief that kids with divorced parents suffer by moving back and forth between the homes of their mothers and fathers. Instead, they indicate that the benefits of having two active and engaged parents far outweigh any drawbacks associated with shuffling back and forth between homes.