Man Over pays Child Support, And visits his son too much, Sentenced to 180 Days in Jail

[Major Nikon]

248. Ad hominem, really?

The APA is considered authoritative in all sorts of legal arguments. Surely you must know this, yes? Who do you think is more authoritative on psychological evaluations on the best interests of the child? Lawyers?

The APA is saying joint custody is in the best interest of the child. They are specifically preparing this opinion for the sake of policy makers which they echoed in front of Congress. The APA is most certainly authoritative and if that's not a legal argument I'm curious as to what you think is. So far the best you have offered is the unsupported opinion of an anonymous DUer.

I don't know that the APA ever changed their thoughts on the subject and they were quite emphatic about it. The APA repeated it again here during their quarterly meeting in 1977:

“Be it resolved that the Council of Representatives recognizes officially and makes suitable promulgation of the fact that it is scientifically and psychologically baseless, as well as a violation of human rights, to discriminate against men because of their sex in assignment of children's custody, in adoption, in the staffing of child-care services, and personnel practices providing for parental leave in relation to childbirth and emergencies involving children and in similar laws and procedures have been repudiated. In their place is a broad political and scientific consensus that children need two parents."

They repeated it again here. You might note that this and the first one are meta reviews based on a number of studies.

the research reviewed here does not support claims by critics of joint custody that joint-custody children are likely to be exposed to more conflict or to be at greater risk of adjustment problems due to having to adjust to two households or feeling “torn” between parents. Joint-custody arrangements (whether legal or physical) do not appear, on average, to be harmful to any aspect of children’s well-being, and may in fact be beneficial. This suggests that courts should not discourage parents from attempting joint custody.

This is what the APA is telling psychologists in their most current family law guidelines:

The classic custody paradigm of sole custodian versus visiting parent is no longer assumed. Rather, many states recognize some form of "joint" or "shared" custody that affirms the decision-making and caretaking status of more than one adult.

Another university study found the same thing.

A study of 517 families with children ranging in age from 10.5 years to 18 years, across a four and a half year period. Measures were: assessed depression, deviance, school effort, and school grades. Children in joint physical custody arrangements were found to have better adjustment on these measures than those in sole custody.

http://www.questia.com/library/7257784/adolescents-after-divorce

The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry agreed

"Consistent with other studies of joint and sole custody [citations], our joint legal and residential non custodians were decidedly more involved with their children following divorce than were non custodians in sole custody arrangements. . . . Lastly, respondents in joint custody arrangements were more apt to perceive their exspouse as having a good relationship with the children and to report satisfaction with that person's performance as a parent."

" . . . conflict between divorcing parents in our sample did not appear to worsen as a result of the increased demand for interparental cooperation and communication in joint legal or joint residential custody arrangements. To the contrary, parents with sole maternal custody reported the greatest deterioration in the relationships over time."

J. Pearson and N. Thoennes,"Custody After Divorce: Demographic and Attitudinal Patterns", American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 60, 1990.

Here's another doctor's opinion published in a Nebraska Law magazine which contains all sorts of cites:
http://www.acfc.org/acfc/assets/documents/Articles/Nebraska%20Lawyer%20Magazine.pdf

The same author published her findings in a peer reviewed journal:
http://www.acfc.org/acfc/assets/documents/research_pdf%27s/Nielsen_SP_Nov_2011.pdf