Dissolution of Marriage

Not all marriages last and unlike other personal relationships, the dissolution of a marriage requires legal involvement to end the relationship. A divorce not only severs a marriage, but it also introduces legal involvement. That legal involvement is in the form of state laws that define how divorces are granted, whether the couple needs to have a formal separation before a divorce can be granted, how property should be divided upon dissolution, and whether formalized spousal financial support should commence. Although the law is involved in each of these issues, there are now more opportunities for the use of alternative dispute resolution options rather than traditional court settings that attempt to give more of the decision making back to the couple.

Leading Up to Marriage and Family

Being married and having children brings certain legal responsibilities and privileges. The current chapter addresses dating and other activities that occur prior to marriage or are related to getting married. In U.S. culture, dating is an important step before marriage and has undergone extreme changes throughout the past century. Once there is a promise to marry other issues are important to consider such as prenuptial agreements, breaches of promise to marry, and the choice of surname for one or both members of the marrying couple. Of course, not all individuals or romantic couples choose marriage. Rates of nonmartial cohabitation rates have continued to rise. These generational changes in premarital and nonmartial behaviors have important implications for contextualizing the current status of marriage.

Barriers to Marriage

In the U.S., individual states hold the power of marriage regulation and decide who can and cannot get married. As such, a number of barriers to marriage either are, or historically have been, in place throughout the states. Past barriers are those like physical and mental conditions the states once viewed as risky for reproductive purposes. Barriers also included race and sexual orientation with some states throughout different periods of history restricting interracial and same-sex marriages. Today, barriers are still in place for young age, incest, polygamy/bigamy, fraud, and duress. Personal attitudes and public opinions seem to be the main driving forces behind the changing landscape of past marital barriers. Psychological research has also played a role by informing public opinion.

Introduction

Family law can be analogized to a door to the family home representing how the family is sometimes open to more or less government involvement depending on the family situation. Family law is vast and diverse, but well-suited for psychology and law inquiry. Both fields are focused on human behavior and at its core family law is about human behavior. Indeed, no other area of law touches so closely to individuals’ own personal experiences because everyone has direct experience in one way or another with family law. And, those experiences touch on the most intimate and private areas of life.

Conclusion

Psychology is, and can be, influential in addressing some of the most difficult and debated family law topics of today and the family law of the future. In some areas, psychological researchers have been actively involved in making empirically sound policies that make the lives of family members better; while in other areas it seems the research has led to more confusion. Still other areas have been neglected entirely and seem ready for careful research examination. There is no unifying family law theory and no simple way to bring all the topics together in a cohesive unit—especially as the topics within family law continue to broaden and evolve.

Intimate Partner Violence, Child Maltreatment, and Elder Maltreatment

Despite the general principles of parental autonomy and privacy, domestic violence and child maltreatment invite police, lawyers, social workers, and judges into the most intimate spaces within a family. Domestic violence is described in terms of intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, and elder maltreatment. Because these topics would be sufficient for an entire separate book, this chapter focuses on the following specific issues related to these forms of domestic violence: domestic violence courts, corporal punishment, obesity as neglect, termination of parental rights, informal caregiving for elders, and mandatory reporting laws for elder maltreatment.

Becoming a Parent and “Making” a Family

How we define who are the members of our family is evolving. With the medical advancements of assisted reproductive technology there are now more avenues for someone to become a parent. In contrast, adoption has deep roots in history, but there are new issues. For example, we know more about the stigma of adoption and racial, or cultural, issues related to adoption. Case law on wrongful adoption also raises important issues about the mental and physical health of a child. We also have more ways to avoid or control reproduction with contraception and greater access to abortions. With each of these constants, or advancements, there are important psychological and legal antecedents and consequences to consider.

Getting, Being, and Staying Married

Marriage changes the legal status of a relationship in a unique way. Individuals’ adjusting to such a changes can be supported by active premarital education or counselling. Additionally, there are legal requirements to effect the status change of going from nonmarried to married. Those requirements are rather simple and generally only require a license and solemnization. One exception is that of the narrowly defined common law marriage. Being married brings with it a number of legal privileges and protections, and also responsibilities and liabilities. For example, there are marital privileges related to property, taxes, medical decisions, torts, and evidence. In the instance of spousal rape, there is a marital privilege for the perpetrator but not the victim.

Child Custody, Visitation, and Support

One of the most contentious, and recently evolving, components of a divorce agreement involves custody of the children. And, this area of family law has been particularly influenced by psychology and other social science research. The guiding principle is that of the best interest standard, which requires an inquiry that goes beyond concrete legal rules that relies on psychological principles and often introduces psychological experts into the legal setting. Those experts can aid with custody arrangements and understanding the potential impact of the divorce on the children. Legal rules define and provide guidelines for financial child support. Finally, newer areas within the law of custody focus on grandparent involvement in their grandchildren’s lives and the newer area within family law of pet custody.

Parenthood and Other Caregiving

Despite how difficult it is to be a parent, people still chose to take on the task of parenting. Beyond the general evolutionary and biological reasons to bear children, cognitive biases could be at play and serving as encouragement for entering into parenthood. Such cognitive biases include affective forecasting, cognitive dissonance, and the burden of choice. All parenting is difficult, but modern parenting comes with special difficulties such as the financial burdens and conflicting research and public opinion concerning parenting styles. Additionally, parenting brings about a unique legal status that has implications for employment, criminal and civil parental responsibility, other caregiving involvement, and educational requirements.