When is shared care indicated and contraindicated following separation?

Following separation parents need to decide what the best living arrangement for their children is. When parents are in conflict about this the Family Law court can help families make this decision. There is a range of living arrangement options available and one is shared care where the child or children spend approximately equal amount of time living with each parent. There is literature suggesting that shared care is the best option in terms of psychosocial developmental outcomes for children. However, there is also literature suggesting that when there is a degree of parental conflict shared care may not be the best option. Therefore it would seem decisions around the best care arrangements for children following parental separation is complex. Given the complexity of the issue and the apparent inconsistent evidence in the literature, this study aimed to systematically review the literature pertaining to shared care in order to determine when shared care is indicted and contraindicated following separation. The methodology involved a systematic literature search adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method. Because literature was reviewed from a variety of sources a narrative approach was used to synthesis the data extracted. From the systematic review of the literature guidelines about the suitability of shared care following separation have been developed for practitioners working in psychology, family therapy and family law.