The Best Interests of Children: An Evidence-Based Approach

A common lament among commentators on child custody law is the dearth of information about children's best interests. Even rarer are guidelines that are backed by population-based empirical evidence. This book attempts to explain child custody outcomes in Canada in terms of factors that predict legal behaviour and factors that are empirically associated with beneficial outcomes for children. In particular the study examines the relative weight that should be placed on such matters as family structure, household income, parental education, and parental gender on the best interests of children. These predictors are tested with the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, a statistical model using a very large sample of Canadian children, aged 4 to 11 years. The study also uses data from Canada's Centre for Justice Statistics to understand the predictors of custody outcomes in Canada for a five-year period. A key finding is that parental gender plays an important role in determining custody outcomes in Canada, but is not important for children's outcomes. A separate study of child support and household income is also included.
The Best Interests of Children provides a wealth of evidence and suggests a new paradigm and series of criteria for assessing child custody. It fills a gap in the Canadian family law landscape and will be invaluable not only to the academic community in the areas of law, social work, psychology, sociology, and family studies, but also to the wide array of legal and mental health professionals involved in assisting children and families in the divorce process where child custody is at issue.

Paul Millar is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Brock University.