The Effects of Court on Mother-Father-Child Bond
Introduction
This research investigates child custody in the United States in instances whereby the father’s visitation is contrary, considered to the child’s mental or physical well-being and safety. The perception of fathers in any community has radically changed. Fathers were initially believed to be helpful to their children, especially boys (Childers, 2010). According to different researchers, if a child could grow in his or her father’s hands, he or she would have better control in his or her life. Academically, such kids would register recommendable performance compared to children who lacked fathers’ guidance. In implication, fathers’ care and guidance to their children were influential to their kids’ future behavior (Byrne & Taylor, 2007). However, researchers have tried to investigate the root cause of post-divorce and single parenthood as they have been reported to be increasing in the country. Among the studies’ findings, it was found that child custody is actively contributing to the situation whereby it has been revealed that about 90% of them are ruling in favor of the father. In recent days, cases of post divorces are highly registered in the country. Fathers have been associated with domestic violence, including child abuse. Some fathers have been reported to abuse their children regardless of gender sexually, and when their mother takes the case to court, the father claims parental alienation. According to the researchers, custody courts have failed in children’s protection when fathers are alleged abusive. The situation has contributed to post divorces and single parenthood, thus weakening the mother-father-child bond.
Research Question
According to recent studies on family issues, it has been established that fathers’ societal perception has radically changed. Fathers now, due to drug abuse, are involved in domestic violence and child abuse, and when mothers allege them to be abusive, the custody courts are ruling in favor of fathers, and through that, they have been deemed failures (Hannah & Goldstein, 2010). Therefore the research question focused on in this research is as follows:
what are the effects of child-custody-court failure on the mother-father-child bond?
Literature Review
Custodial violence is experienced when exercising financial exploitation by hiding joint finances, irregular visitations, or reduction in support payments (Dragiewicz, 2010). Following domestic violence and social inequalities, men are financially stable compared to women, and due to women’s dependency on them, men become abusers to both children and women. Different studies have established that when a child is exposed to the abuse, he or she suffers from various mental and behavioral problems (Kernic et al. 2003). Such children are referred to as speech therapy. Additionally, abused children are likely to show problematic actions when at school; they may fail to go to school or drop out completely (Byrne & Taylor, 2007). When a child faces problematic custody, he or she is likely to experience problematic reading and verbal skills compared to their colleagues in class. Consequently, such students often repeat their classes. Research reveals that these effects are experienced by being directly abused and when the child witnesses his or her mother being abused by the father (Hannah & Goldstein, 2010). When this occurs, the child is likely to experience depression, social problems with others, anxiety, and behavioral and mental disorders. In some cases, such children, due to self-defense mechanisms, assume the role of fathers and become contemptuous to their mother. The latter is likely to reoccur in the future in the relationship of such children.
Such abusive fathers are likely to be manipulative over their ex-women, whereby the traumatization continues on their children (Lapierre et al. 2018). When mothers allege their husbands as abusive, they can accuse such women with children’s ill-treatment, including drug use and alcoholism. In a case whereby such accusations are validated, children are left in the hands of abusive fathers, and their mother’s involvement is eliminated. The freedom of the father to his children to abuse is increased (Dragiewicz, 2010). In this case, professional agencies such as police, guardianship office, child custody, and child welfare agencies have failed in child protection. However, not all abusive parental behaviors are criminal acts; some can be undermining the authority and power of the mother and her parenting skills. Such behaviors have impacts on limiting various relationships of such mothers with kids’ friends, family members, peer parents, co-workers, and teachers (Dragiewicz, 2010). Additionally, such behaviors detrimentally affect the family’s well-being and children’s development. The fear of continued abuse increases anxiety among the children, who are victims, increased problematic custody to the victims, and difficulty keeping relationships in their adulthood.
Abusive fathers tend to blame for terminating their relationship, thus involving their kids in an argument about their divorce. The latter’s long-term effect is that it is likely to interfere with the mother-child relationship (Childers, 2010). If children are alienated from their mother’s guidance, they are more likely to distrust them, show anger to them, and have a sense of shame (Lapierre et al. 2018). Additionally, such children are likely to take the behavior of their abusive father. This has been depicted in one of the studies conducted in Homeland, whereby a certain mother saw her four-year-old boy acting sexually to his young brother. When she asked the boy, he explained how his father has been doing to him. When the case was taken to child custody, the father claimed parental alienation (Dragiewicz, 2010). Therefore, abused children are more likely to take their abuser’s behavior if the court rules that the abuser should be left with them after the mother’s ill-treatment accusation by the father (Kernic et al. 2003). All these effects have been deemed to have a direct relationship with the custody courts’ failure.
Methodology
The research employed mixed methods, whereby three interrelated phases where involved. The research exclusively used primary data. The first phase is whereby an online survey was used involving a short questionnaire where both men and women who were victims of child custody were surveyed through social media. From the survey, 50 participants completed the questionnaire. The 50 members were called upon to show their interest in participating in the research’s second phase. The second phase of the research involved filling on a questionnaire about child custody and the way they experienced IPV. Only the sample members who had experienced problematic child custody were involved in phase two to fill the questionnaire. Consequently, the form was filled by 30 people who further volunteered to take part in the third phase of the research involving data collection. In phase three of the research, only women were involved. The sample members of phase three were those mothers who had been involved in domestic violence in their relationship times and faced problems with their contact arrangements or child’s custody.
The third face was a physical interview of the women that aimed to get detailed information about child-custody-court proceedings. The fundamental aim was to establish feelings of such mothers about the problematic custody and also the impacts the problematic custody on their children. All the groups from the first phase to the third phase were assured of their information confidentiality. As a result, they all signed a consent form, implying that they will voluntarily participate in the research. Prior to the interview, the sample members were informed about the prime aim of the interview, and they were given the freedom to leave the interview when anytime they wished. The research observed the ethical issues whereby the respondents kept anonymity.
Data Analysis
The data collected from the interview was almost qualitative. It involved the women’s experience in their relationships about domestic violence and the problematic child custody they had faced in their lives. The data collected were compared against human rights treaties and declarations. From the analysis of the information, it was found that the custody courts are failing in their role o child protection.
Findings
According to human rights, many custody courts were found to be failing in their role. This resulted from their ruling in favor of fathers whenever mothers alleged them to be abusive. It was found that about 84% of the fathers who faced the allegations were granted mandated joint or sole custody. In such a case, fathers were found to be awarded custody in about 80% of the cases. As a result, many cases of post-divorces were being recorded in the country, single parenthood increased, and children could not access quality education due to family instability. The ultimate outcomes of such children were school dropouts. In some cases, the custody court alienated the mother’s care to her children, and they were left with the abusive father. All these rulings in favor of the abusive parent were termed as custody courts’ failure. The adverse effects experienced by the victim children were said to be as a result of custody courts’ failure. Consequently, through the post-divorces and single parenthood, the relationship children, their mother, and their father (mother-father-child relationship) are broken due to custody courts’ failure.
Conclusion
In recent days, cases of post divorces are highly registered in the country. Fathers have been associated with domestic violence, including child abuse. Some fathers have been reported to abuse their children regardless of gender sexually, and when their mother takes the case to court, the father claims parental alienation. In many cases, the court has been ruling in favor of the father leading to continued child abuse and domestic violence. Through this, the court has been associated with continued child abuse and domestic violence. Due to that, many children have been adversely affected. Some have experienced mental and physical problems. The mother-father-child relationship has been broken as post-divorces, and single parenthood cases are highly increasing. The root cause of all these problems has been found to be the custody courts’ failure.
References
Byrne, D., & Taylor, B. (2007). Children at risk from domestic violence and their educational attainment: Perspectives of education welfare officers, social workers, and teachers. Child Care in Practice, 13(3), 185-201.
Childers, L. B. (2010). Parental bonding in father-son relationships.
Dragiewicz, M. (2010). Gender bias in the courts: Implications for battered mothers and their children. Domestic violence, abuse, and child custody: Legal strategies and policy issues, 5-1.
Hannah, M. T., & Goldstein, B. (2010). Domestic violence, abuse, and child custody. Kingston, NJ: Civic Research Institute.
Kernic, M. A., Wolf, M. E., Holt, V. L., McKnight, B., Huebner, C. E., & Rivara, F. P. (2003). Behavioral problems among children whose mothers are abused by an intimate partner. Child Abuse & Neglect, 27(11), 1231-1246.
Lapierre, S., Côté, I., Lambert, A., Buetti, D., Lavergne, C., Damant, D., & Couturier, V. (2018). Difficult but close relationships: Children’s perspectives on relationships with their mothers in domestic violence. Violence against women, 24(9), 1023-1038.