Parental Separation and Overnight Care of Young Children, Part II: Putting Theory into Practice

• Author: Jennifer E. McIntosh,Joan B. Kelly,Marsha Kline Pruett
• Date: 01 April 2014
• Published date: 01 April 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12088

PARENTAL SEPARATION AND OVERNIGHT CARE OF YOUNG

CHILDREN, PART II: PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Jennifer E. McIntosh, Marsha Kline Pruett, and Joan B. Kelly*

This article is a companion piece to the empirical and theoretical perspectives on infant overnight care arrangements offered

in Part I. Grounded in an integrated psycho-developmental perspective, the paper provides a set of clinical assumptions and a

related chart of practical considerations, to guide decision making about infant overnight care, both in the individual case and

in broader policy contexts. At all levelsof decision making, we endorse the need for developmentally sensitive resolutions that

protect both the vulnerabilities of early childhood and support lifelong parent–child relationships, whenever possible.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

• Parenting orders or plans for children 0–3 years of age should foster both developmentalsecurity and the health of each

parent–child relationship, now and into the future.

• From a position of theoretical and empirical consensus, we providean integrated set of assumptions and considerations

to guide decision making about overnight parenting plans.

• These considerations apply equally to planning in the individual case and to policy level decisions.

Keywords: Attachment;Children;Divorce;Infants;Overnights;Parent Involvement;Parenting Plans;and Separation.

TOWARD DEVELOPMENTALLY RESPONSIVE PARENTING PLANSAND ORDERS

The consensus points outlined in Part I of this paper (Pruett, McIntosh, & Kelly,this issue) provide

the foundation for the current article (Part II). We take the view that parenting orders or plans for the

0–3 year group have twin and mutually reinforcing responsibilities; the first to foster developmental

well-being during the first three years, and the second to support the health of each parent–child

relationship, now and into the future. Here, we bridge relevant bodies of developmental and divorce

research into a set of assumptions and clinical considerations, in the hope of providing practical

guidance for individualized planning about the postseparation care of young children.

Throughout these two companion papers, we resist the urge to prescribe fixed formulas about

numbers of overnights or age of commencement, and encourage policy makers and practitioners to do

likewise. Instead, we provide guidance about the key assumptions, principles and specific factors that,

when weighed together in the individual case, will foster developmentally sound decisions.

THE UNDERPINNING ASSUMPTIONS

A set of core assumptions provides a critical context for the decision-making chart that follows.

These assumptions prioritize both attachment organization and joint parental involvement whenever

the conditions of safety and the minimization of stress are met. Under such conditions, a responsive

parenting plan would allow the child to benefit from the ways that parent-child relationships in early

childhood differ normatively, and enable access to the full complement of emotional, cognitive,

family, social and economic resources each parent can offer. The clinical reasoning within the chart

(see Table 1) rests on three levels of assumptions:

Correspondence: mcintosh@familytransitions.com.au; mpruett@smith.edu; jbkellyphd@mindspring.com

FAMILY COURT REVIEW,Vol. 52 No. 2, April 2014 256–262

© 2014 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts