A survey of mothers' experiences of shared parenting and domestic violence

• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Author: Beth Archer‐Kuhn,Michael Saini,Judith Hughes,Dora Tam,Diane I. N. Trudgill
• Date: 01 April 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12715

ARTICLE

A survey of mothers' experiences of shared

parenting and domestic violence

Beth Archer-Kuhn

1

| Michael Saini

2

| Judith Hughes

3

|

Dora Tam

1

| Diane I. N. Trudgill

4

1

Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary,

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

2

Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto,

Ontario, Canada

3

University of Manitoba, Social Work,

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

4

Social Work, University of Windsor,

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Correspondence

Beth Archer-Kuhn, University of Calgary,

Faculty of Social Work, Calgary,

Alberta, Canada.

Email: beth.archerkuhn@ucalgary.ca

Abstract

This cross-sectional survey reports on the experiences and

impact of mothers in shared parenting arrangements and

their young children ages 0–4 years across three

provinces in Canada (Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario). The

purpose of the study was to explore shared parenting

arrangements in the context of domestic violence, and

we sought to recruit mothers from a range of experiences

regarding reported violence in their relationships

with their ex-partners. The online survey consisted of

standardized tools to measure child development, depres-

sion, substance use, and anxiety, extent and severity of

domestic violence, and coparenting. Recruiting during

the pandemic was challenging, which required various

recruitment strategies. The total sample included 84 mothers

who completed questionnaires. Findings show that while

mothers experienced various forms of domestic violence

in shared parenting arrangements, experiences of coercive

control were most evident. Implications are identified and

discussed in relation to parenting plans, shared parenting

and all forms of domestic violence including coercive

control.

KEYWORDS

Alberta, Canada, coercive controlling behavior, co-parenting,

domestic violence, family court, Manitoba, mothers/mothering,

Ontario, shared parenting, young children

DOI: 10.1111/fcre.12715

© 2023 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

Family Court Rev. 2023;61:395–412. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fcre 395

Key points for the family court community

•While shared parenting is being routinely ordered in

Canadian family courts in contested custody and access

situations, domestic violence is not being screened for and

mothers and children are subjected to current and ongoing

acts of violence and coercive controlling behaviors.

•With legislation changes to the Canadian Divorce Act

will come policies that require attention to coercive

control and practices for ensuring the safety of mothers

and young children.

•Greater attention to screening for coercively controlling

behaviors for legal and social service actors will be as

important as screening for physically violence behaviors.

•The correlation presented here between the HITS scores

and the COPAFS scores imply some of the ways in which

the CoPAFS may be used in practice as a means to

support (or not) decisions for shared parenting.

•This study begins to paint a picture of the impacts of

domestic violence beyond physical violence in shared

parenting arrangements that is not currently being

considered in Canadian family courts.

INTRODUCTION

Shared parentingis a parenting plan arrangementwhereby children share approximatetime with each parent following

the separation of the parental relationship (Bala, 2014). While there remains no consensus about the breakdown of

time to define sharedparenting, parenting plans typicallyinvolve at least 40% of the time with both parents in Canada

and are related to child support guidelines (Bala et al., 2017;Bala,2014). The percentage of time with each parent

ranges from 25%to 50% across jurisdictions (Bauserman, 2012). The presumption of shared parenting as the ideal par-

enting plan has become a dominant parenting plan policy debate that underpins legal judgments and service delivery,

with pressures from advocacy groups to move to a presumption of shared parenting for each case involved in the

courts (Bala et al.,2017; Statistics Canada, 2012).

While there has been a steady increase in shared parenting plans in recent years, a review of court files between

2010 and 2012 by the Department of Justice Canada found that only 21% of the files included children sharing at

least 40% of their time with both parents. In the majority of the cases, the children were in the primary residency of

one of the parents and had contact with the other parent (Bala, 2014). There is a growing trend for the courts to sup-

port shared decision making where the children reside primarily with one parent and the parents jointly decide on

major issues that impact the children. For example, the Department of Justice Canada court file review found that

75% of parenting plan arrangements included shared decision making by both parents and an additional 20% of

396 FAMILY COURT REVIEW