TOOL OF THE DAY: Parental Authority

CATEGORY: Family Law

“Reduced father involvement after divorce has been linked to more conduct problems, particularly for boys, but when both mothers and fathers are actively involved and provide authoritative parenting, including monitoring of behaviors, adolescent boys had no more delinquent behaviors than those in married families (Hetherington, 1999; Simons et al., 1999).”

*p.45 Joan B Kelly “Children’s Living Arrangements Following Separation and Divorce:  Insights From Empirical and Clinical Research” (Warning — most of the content in this paper we do not agree with. We put the quote above as that one we know to be true — we know that when parent’s authority remains intact children do better. However, there is much in this paper that has led to much bias.)