Children’s residence in divorce disputes – examination of social work reports to the court

Abstract

The paper examines how children’s residency is portrayed in the reports of social workers to courts in cases of contested divorce. In addition, light will be shed on how the descriptions contained in the reports pass into the court orders. The reports are approached through a micro-sociological lens: as assessment practices of social work which define children’s residency and welfare. The results show that extensive and detailed descriptions of the physical residential situation of the child’s mother and father were the most prevalent in the reports. People in the home and their interpersonal relationships together with the atmosphere of the home were also reported on. However, in the summaries of their reports the social workers place particular value on the cooperative parental relationships and stabilised circumstances of the child. Similar arguments were central in the judges’ orders. The results raise questions of the appropriateness of the reports when settling the cases.

Keywords:

• Child custody dispute
• children’s residency
• well-being
• social work reports to the court

Notes

1. Each social work report concerns one family, which may have one or more children. A report is usually based on (one or more) home visits to the homes of the mother and the father, with the child or children present during the visit. Children are also often met with individually. If a parent’s new partner or a grandparent happens to be present, s/he may also be given a voice in the report. In most cases, the same social workers visit the homes of both parents.

2. The five district courts selected represent small, medium-size and large district courts, and together they deal with 40% of all cases concerning child custody and visiting rights in Finland. Each district court was asked to select 10–15 cases which included a social work report in a divorce situation.

3. In 2012, it was agreed in 82% of the agreements concerning a child’s residence that the child would reside with the mother (Okkonen, 2014).

4. The data were originally collected by Aino Kääriäinen, who holds the rights to it. The selected passages in the data were anonymised by her before allowing them to be used in our collaborative analysis.

5. The district courts request a social work report in about one-third of the cases. The reports are requested during the preliminary process before the main court hearing and the preparation of the court order (Aaltonen, 2009, pp. 147–168, 204–205; Kääriäinen, 2015, p. 380).