of
Michigan. Er ist außerordentlicher Professor für Psychologie und Lehrbeauftragter für Recht und Verhaltenswissenschaften an der Arizona State University. Er erhielt Forschungsgelder in Höhe von über fünf Millionen US-Dollar vom National Institute of Mental Health und dem National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Er veröffentlichte über 70 empirische Forschungsartikel und wissenschaftliche Buchkapitel in Fachzeitschriften und Büchern und hielt mehr als 40 Vorträge und Beratungen für familienrechtliche Organisationen und Konferenzen. Von 2002 bis 2013 war er Mitglied des Ausschusses für Familienrecht im Parlament von Arizona und leitete in dieser Funktion die Bemühungen, die zu umfassenden Reformen des Sorgerechts in Arizona führten. Diese Gesetze machten Arizona zum ersten Bundesstaat mit einer faktischen, widerlegbaren Vermutung, dass es im besten Interesse des Kindes liegt, nach einer Trennung der Eltern ein gleichberechtigtes Umgangsrecht mit beiden Elternteilen zu haben. Im Jahr 2010 erhielt er den Wissenschafts- und Forschungspreis des Arizona-Chapters der Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. 2024 wurde ihm der Ned-Holstein-Preis der National Parents Organization für sein Lebenswerk im Bereich der Forschung zur gemeinsamen elterlichen Sorge verliehen.

Plenary title
The Scientific Case for Legal Presumption of Equal Parenting Time

Abstract
I will examine the necessary components of the scientific case for legal presumptions of equal parenting time (EPT). The first component is the theoretical causal model that identifies the mechanisms by which EPT legislation benefits children. The model specifies that (a) legislation will increase rates of EPT, (b) EPT will protect children’s emotional security with both parents, and (c) children’s emotional security will have a positive effect on public health in the form of reduced long-term stress-related mental and physical health problems among children of divorce. The second component is the empirical evidence for each of the causal links. (a) is supported by evidence from Spain. (b) is supported by correlational findings that meet five conditions necessary for a causal role of EPT: A legal context that constrains the possibility of self-selection into EPT; a dose-response positive association between parenting time and emotional security with fathers; the association is maintained when courts impose more parenting time, and when relocations reduce parenting time with fathers; and the direction of the association is from changes in parenting time at one year to changes in father-child security the next year, and not vice versa, and after controlling for stable traits of fathers and children. The third component is empirical evidence that the association is maintained in families with high parental conflict, and in families with children under age three. (c) is supported by evidence of infants’ attachment to fathers, and by the voluminous public health literature. Finally, if time permits, I will discuss some strategies for not only translating the scientific evidence into policy — including getting buy-in from the anti-domestic violence community, lawyers, and judges — but also maintaining support for the legal reform by putting mechanisms in place to monitor courts’ compliance.