The children's preferences in the assesment of joint custody from a sociological perspective

Abstract

The research addresses the issue of joint custody in relation to one of the criteria taken into account by family courts: the preferences of the children The goal of this research is to know the preferences of children in relation to their parents and caregivers in meeting their needs. Once these preferences are known, they are related to the type of custody attributed by the Family Court between 2013 and 2016.A content analysis of a total of 136 judicial records was carried out. The results show that mothers are in demand to a greater extent than fathers. However, fathers play an active role in playful and safety children needs. The chidren´s preferences are related to shared custody and depend more on the gender of the children than on their age.