What Americans Agree On: Shared Parenting

Forty years of research on child well-being has firmly established that, when parents are living apart, it is almost always best for children to spend equal time with each of their parents, assuming both are fit. (Some of the best of this research is highlighted on NPO’s website.) Despite this, in most states, legislators have been slow to enact laws that will protect children’s interests by ensuring both parents share equally in raising them.

If legislators won’t listen to the science, maybe they’ll listen to the people!

For several years now, National Parents Organization has been commissioning surveys of Americans' attitudes toward shared parenting when parents live apart. These polls are conducted by an independent research company, Researchscape International, Inc. Researchscape has conducted for NPO surveys now it 19 states. 

In every of these 19 states, more than 85% of the respondents say that “it’s in a child’s best interest to spend as much time as possible with each parent” when parents live apart. And more than 80% say they would support “a change in their state’s laws that creates a rebuttable presumption that shared parenting is in the best interest of a child after parental separation.”

The most recent of these polls were conducted just months ago in six states: Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Washington, and West Virginia. And the support for shared parenting was even stronger in the polls conducted this year. In all six states, at least 92% of respondents agreed that it was in children’s best interest to spend as much time as possible with each parent when the parents live apart. And at least 85% supported a change in their state laws that created a presumption in favor of shared parenting.

And here’s a statistic that might get politicians’ attention. In every one of these six states, at least 92% of respondents reported that they would be more willing to vote for a candidate who supports children spending equal or nearly equal time with each parent when the parents live apart.

Over the next few days, NPO will be publishing detailed articles on the shared parenting polling in each of these six states. Watch for these reports.

We live in politically polarized times, with Americans disagreeing vehemently about so many things. Shared parenting is an issue that can bring us together. We all love our children and grandchildren and want what’s best for them. And shared parenting is best for our children and grandchildren.