Cancian et al. 2014 — Who gets custody now? Dramatic changes in children's living arrangements after divorce

What the study found

Drawing on two decades of Wisconsin court records, Cancian and colleagues tracked how physical custody was awarded after divorce between 1988 and 2008. They found that the proportion of mothers granted sole physical custody fell substantially over that period, the proportion of parents sharing custody rose dramatically, and father-sole custody stayed relatively stable throughout — so the decline in mother-sole custody flowed mainly into shared arrangements rather than into fathers gaining sole custody. ^[1]

between 1988 and 2008, the proportion of mothers granted sole physical custody fell substantially, the proportion of parents sharing custody increased dramatically, and father-sole custody remained relatively stable

^[1]

Why it matters here

This study is frequently invoked in debates over whether family courts systematically favour mothers over fathers. Its data complicate a simple "courts always give mothers custody" narrative: over the period studied, sole maternal custody declined markedly and shared custody became far more common, even though father-sole custody did not rise much. That trend is directly relevant to weighing the claim about whether family courts are biased against fathers, because it documents a shift toward shared parenting rather than a fixed maternal-preference regime — while also noting the finding is drawn from one U.S. state's records.