Dissertation Research: Representations of Parenthood: An Analysis of Child Custody Laws, the Courts, and Families

在过去的五十年里，社会文化中关于母亲和父亲的信仰发生了迅速的变化。离婚率和单身母亲所生孩子的数量有所增加，而更多的女性——尤其是母亲——进入了劳动力市场。家庭生活的这些人口变化导致美国人对母亲和父亲角色的看法发生了重大变化。这些变化影响了儿童监护法，将其从母亲的偏好转变为更平等的标准：孩子的最大利益。然而，也有证据表明，传统的亲子观念在法律体系中依然存在。因此，社会进程似乎使平等主义和传统的母性和父性观念永久化。本研究通过四个独立但相互关联的分析来探讨母性和父亲性的概念，以调查父母的文化观念。(1)将对州儿童监护法规进行内容分析，以探讨州立法机构在多大程度上定义了良好养育的指导方针。(2)儿童监护判例法将在州的一个子集中进行审查，以探讨州上诉法院如何将母亲和父亲的概念纳入其判决。（三）我们会与法官面谈，检视他们最近的子女管养决定，探讨他们如何看待母亲和父亲，以及这些观点如何反映在子女管养案件中。(4)通过定量分析《全国家庭住户调查》中离婚家庭中父母的态度，来调查离婚家庭中为人父母的意义。这种对家庭和法律制度交集的社会学研究的贡献应该引起包括政治学和法学在内的许多学科的学者的兴趣。此外，本研究对儿童监护政策以及其他影响家庭的政策，如儿童抚养政策或福利政策具有启示意义。

Over the last fifty years, sociocultural beliefs surrounding motherhood and fatherhood have changed rapidly. The divorce rate and the number of children born to single mothers have increased while more women--especially mothers--have entered the work force. These demographic changes in family life have resulted in major shifts in the ways Americans conceive of both mothers' and fathers' roles. These changes have affected child custody laws, shifting them from a maternal preference to a more egalitarian standard: the best interests of the child. Evidence also suggests, however, that traditional notions of parenthood persist in the legal system. Therefore, social processes seem to perpetuate both egalitarian and traditional notions of motherhood and fatherhood. This study investigates cultural notions of parenthood by conducting four separate but interrelated analyses to explore notions of motherhood and fatherhood. (1) State child custody statutes will be content analyzed to explore the extent to which state legislatures define guidelines for good parenting. (2) Child custody case law will be examined in a subset of states to explore how state appellate courts incorporate notions motherhood and fatherhood into their decisions. (3) Judges will be interviewed to examine their recent child custody decisions to explore how they view mothers and fathers and how these views are reflected in child custody cases. (4) The meaning of parenthood in divorced families will be investigated by quantitatively analyzing the attitudes of parents in divorced families in the National Survey of Families and Households. The contributions of this sociological examination of the intersection of family and the legal system should be of interest to scholars across many disciplines, including political science and law. Further, this study has implications for child custody policy as well as other policies that affect families, such as child support policy or welfare policy.