Changes in Legal Regulations, Parental Health and Well-Being, and Children’s Physical Custody Arrangements among Post-Separation Families in Switzerland

Author(s):  
Claudia Recksiedler ◽  
Laura Bernardi
Author(s):  
Claudia Recksiedler ◽  
Alexandra N. Langmeyer ◽  
Christine Entleitner-Phleps ◽  
Sabine Walper

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (12) ◽  
pp. 1091-1098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Wall-Wieler ◽  
Bo Vinnerljung ◽  
Can Liu ◽  
Leslie L Roos ◽  
Anders Hjern

BackgroundSeparation from one’s child can have significant consequences for parental health and well-being. We aimed to investigate whether parents whose children were placed in care had higher rates of avoidable mortality.MethodsData were obtained from the Swedish national registers. Mortality rates among parents whose children were placed in care between 1990 and 2012 (17 503 mothers, 18 298 fathers) were compared with a 1:5 matched cohort of parents whose children were not placed. We computed rate differences and HRs of all-cause and avoidable mortality.ResultsAmong mothers, deaths due to preventable causes were 3.09 times greater (95% CI 2.24 to 4.26) and deaths due to amenable causes were 3.04 times greater (95% CI 2.03 to 4.57) for those whose children were placed in care. Among fathers, death due to preventable causes were 1.64 times greater (95% CI 1.32 to 2.02) and deaths due to amenable causes were 1.84 times greater (95% CI 1.33 to 2.55) for those whose children were placed in care. Avoidable mortality rates were higher among mothers whose children were young when placed in care and among parents whose children were all placed in care.ConclusionsParents who had a child placed in out-of-home care are at higher risk of avoidable mortality. Interventions targeting mothers who had a child aged less than 13 placed in care, and parents whose children were all placed in care could have the greatest impact in reducing avoidable mortality in this population.


2012 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åsa Carlsund ◽  
Ulrika Eriksson ◽  
Eva Sellström

Author(s):  
Claudia Recksiedler ◽  
Laura Bernardi

AbstractChanging legal and parental practices across Europe led to a higher share of parents practicing shared physical custody (SPC) upon separation, who tended to be more affluent and less conflict-ridden. Since SPC became more prevalent, profiles of SPC parents pluralized. Far from these developments, no clearly defined legal pathways toward SPC existed in Switzerland before 2017. Profiling the Swiss case, we examine the prevalence of SPC families, and its associations with parental health and well-being before these legislative changes. Among 875 separated parents of 1,269 minors, SPC (i.e., child alternates between parental homes at least 30% of the time) was practiced by about 11% of the sample. A higher share of SPC parents was highly-educated, yet more financially strained compared to other parents. Although no overall differences in health and well-being emerged between SPC and other separated parents (e.g., with sole custody), SPC-health-linkages varied by gender and education. We conclude that lacking institutional support for SPC and gender-biased employment practices reinforce traditional custody models. Because of costly childcare and more skewed time splits among Swiss SPC parents, SPC may represent more of a resource drain—at least economically—than a relief for the parent shouldering more care duties and expenses.


Author(s):  
Lara Augustijn

Abstract Background Joint physical custody is a parental care arrangement in which children live roughly an equal amount of time with each parent after family dissolution, residing alternately in each of the two parental households. Because joint physical custody is characterised by fathers’ continued involvement in their children’s lives, this care arrangement is believed to compensate for the negative effects of family dissolution, and to contribute to children’s well-being in post-separation families. Objective This study aims to investigate potential differences in the experiences of stress of children living in joint physical custody and sole physical custody arrangements, while considering both the proportion of time the children spend with each of their parents and the number of transitions the children make between the parental households. Methods Based on data from the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) study, a national convenience sample, linear regression models were estimated for 297 children between the ages of 11 and 14. Results The statistical analysis suggests that there was no significant association between the physical custody type (sole physical custody vs. joint physical custody) and the children’s levels of stress. In addition, the results revealed that children’s experiences of stress did not depend on how often they moved between their parents’ households. Conclusions This study does not corroborate the assumption that joint physical custody has a protective effect on children, but instead suggests that different physical custody arrangements are associated with different stressors that lead to similar levels of stress in children living in different post-separation families.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 174550652094941
Author(s):  
Ariela L Marshall ◽  
Virginia Dines ◽  
Andrea Wahner Hendrickson ◽  
Rahma Warsame ◽  
Gita Thanarajasingam ◽  
...  

Background: Parenthood during medical training is common and impacts trainee well-being. However, current graduate medical education parental health policies are often limited in scope. We explored current fellowship trainees’ knowledge of/satisfaction with current policies as well as interest in potential changes/additions to existing policies. Methods: Fellowship program directors/coordinators at a three-site academic institution were surveyed and information was collected from 2015 to 2019 regarding fellow demographics and parental health policies. We distributed an electronic survey to fellows containing Likert-type-scale questions rating knowledge/level of satisfaction with current parental health policies and interest in potential additions/modifications to current policies. Results: Thirty-five of 47 (74%) fellowship programs responded. An average of 11% of female fellows and 15% of male fellows took parental leave during the study period. Three (9%) of the programs had at least one additional parental health policy beyond institutional graduate medical education policies. In the fellow survey, 175 of 609 fellows responded (28.7%), of which 84 (48.6%) were female. Although 89.1% agreed/strongly agreed that parental health is an important part of health and well-being for fellows, only 32% were satisfied/very satisfied with current policies (no significant sex-related differences). Fellows reported the following potential interventions as important/very important: 79.2% increased (paid) maternity leave (72.7% male, 86.7% female, p = 0.02), 78% increased (paid) paternity leave (76.4% male, 81.9% female, p = 0.37), 72.3% part-time return to work (60.2% male, 84.3% female, p = 0.0005), 63% coverage for workup/management of infertility (52.3% male, 74.7% female, p = 0.002), and 79.9% on-site day care (70.7% male, 89.2% female, p = 0.003). Conclusions: Parental health includes multiple domains, not all of which are covered by current policies. Fellows feel that parental health is an important part of overall health and well-being, but most are not satisfied with current policies. Expanded access to parental leave and new policies (part-time return to work, infertility management, and on-site day care) are opportunities for innovation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 87-101
Author(s):  
Marta Nowakowska ◽  
Ewa Niemiec

BREEDING PUREBRED DOGS AND CATS AND ANIMAL PROTECTION — ANALYSIS OF POLISH LEGAL SOLUTIONSThe main goal of this article is to analyse the legal regulations of the conditions of purebred dog and cat kennels in Poland. During the work on the amendment of the Animal Protection Act in 2011, the issue of the existence of “puppy mills” has been raised. This phenomenon is defined as mass, profit-oriented breeding of purebred pets at the expense of animal health and well-being. It is also often accused of exacerbating the problem of stray dogs and cats due to the increase of their population. The changes implemented in the amendment were supposed to curtail the scale of this phenomenon through imposing acompulsory membership in social organisations obliged to control breeding conditions on breeders. However, it has not worked as intended — puppy mills still exist and the legal regulation is criticised both by breeders and by institutions concerned with the issue of stray animals. Current legal solutions were analysed in this paper, with special attention paid to their goals and the way they were implemented. Existing and emerging problems were also indicated. It may be of help in creating essential legislative changes as well as in fulfilling the Act’s objective.


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