Involved Fathers, Liberated Mothers? Joint Physical Custody and the Subjective Well-being of Divorced Parents

More and more parents are sharing the care of their children after divorce. While the effects of joint physical custody on child outcomes have been studied abundantly, the consequences for parent's well-being received less attention. This study investigates how the subjective well-being of divorce parents is affected by their custody status and hereby explores two mediating mechanisms: the parental involvement and the availability of leisure time. Data from the Divorce in Flanders survey (N = 1,506) is used to explore this question. There is no direct effect of custody on parents' subjective well-being. We do find small indirect effects of custody on parents' subjective wellbeing, which are gender specific. For divorced mothers, more parenting time is positively associated with subjective well-being through more openness in the mother-child communication. For divorced fathers, more parenting time is negatively associated with subjective well-being through more problems in the communication with their children.