Joint Physical Custody after Divorce - Advantages and Disadvantages

In 1998 an amendment of the Family Act of 1963 made it possible, following the example of western countries, to entrust children to joint physical custody of parents, after their divorce. This gives them the possibility to equally share the upbringing and making decisions in important matters concerning their child after their divorce. This form of post-divorce organisation of child care is relatively new in this country, and that is why we have little experience with it so far. Specialists who are in contact with the questions of the joint physical custody present a number of both advantages and disadvantages. The objective of my diploma thesis was to map the particular questions, find out how the professional and non-professional public view the joint physical custody, and subsequently, compare these results. My further objective was to describe the advantages and disadvantages resulting from the shared parenting. My research was based on the hypothesis that the professional public regarded this post-divorce organisation of child care as suitable, further on the hypothesis that non-professional public was not sufficiently informed about this possibility of post-divorce organisation of child care, and, last but not least, the statement that there were differences between the attitude held by the professional and that held by the non-professional public to the questions mentioned. Two of the three hypotheses were confirmed in the course of the research. The conducted research is of explorative character, it combines elements of quantitative and qualitative research. To conduct it I used the method of questioning by means of an anonymous questionnaire, the data obtained were processed in the computer SPSS programme. In questions containing qualitative data, I conducted a qualitative content analysis. Another technique that I applied was the secondary data analysis. The research sample was made up of randomly chosen representatives of both professional and non-professional public from the Regions of South Bohemia and Hradec Králové. My thesis will serve as a feedback for specialists dealing with this field, it will be used for the needs of the Children and Family Crisis Centre in České Budějovice. Its results will serve for the improvement of information of professional and non-professional public