Legal and Psychological Perspectives on Parental Responsibility and Shared Residence after Divorce

The analysis of current trends in family dissolution indicates that the number of divorces has increased in the European Union in recent decades. And, as divorce rates are increasing year by year, so is the number of children affected. The courts, lawyers and parents themselves are faced with the dilemma of how to regulate family affairs, including relationships between parents and children so that they are most beneficial for the latter. One of the most important and challenging issues remains the habitual residence of the child after divorce. Today, shared residence is an increasingly popular solution among divorced parents and the courts in different European countries are starting to consider shared residence as a more viable option than before. The aim of the paper is to identify post-divorce parenting both from a theoretical and practical point of view. In the first part of the paper, the concepts of parental responsibility and shared residence are presented. Then, shared parenting after divorce is investigated in the relevant legal instruments supporting maintaining positive parent-child relationships. The last part of the paper is devoted to the advantages and disadvantages of shared residence in the light of psychological research.