The document discusses research on parental separation and overnight care of young children aged 0-3. It outlines 7 points of consensus on the developmental needs of young children from separated families. These points emphasize that the early childhood period is critical to development and requires special attention in family law matters. The document also discusses clinical considerations for determining post-separation overnight care for young children based on ensuring safety, the quality of parent-child relationships, and parental cooperation. The goal is to develop parenting plans that prioritize both attachment relationships and involvement of both parents whenever possible.

1. PARENTAL SEPARATION AND
OVERNIGHT
CARE OF YOUNG CHILDREN
YVETTE STRAWBRIDGE : FDRP, MEDIATOR, CHILD INCLUSIVE PRACTITIONER,
COLLABORATIVE COACH

2. OBJECTIVES
• To provide brief information on the bodies of knowledge
related to attachment and parental involvement.
• To provide points of consensus about the developmental
needs of young children in families living apart.
• To provide an integrative perspective suggesting that the
goals of attachment and early bilateral parental involvement
with very young children after separation are mutually
attainable and mutually reinforcing rather than exclusive
choices.

3. MAJOR REFERENCES
•Parental separation and overnight care of young children, Part
1: Consensus through theoretical and empirical integration
Authors: Marsha Kline Pruett, Jennifer E. McIntosh and Joan B. Kelly in Family Court
Review, Vol. 52 No 2, April 2014, pp 241 – 256.
•Parental separation and overnight care of young children, Part
11:
Putting theory into practice
Authors: Jennifer E. McIntosh, Marsha Kline Pruett and Joan B. Kelly in Family Court
Review, Vol. 52 No 2, April 2014, pp 256 – 262.

4. THE FAMILY LAW ACT 1975
The Family Law Act 1975 provides that if it is in the
best interests of the child and is reasonably
practicable, parents could consider including
parenting agreements in their parenting plan such as:
i) The child/ren spending equal time with each
parent; or
ii) The child/ren spending substantial and significant
time with each parent.

5. EARLY CHILDHOOD
UNDERSTANDINGS
•Synonymous with healthy social and emotional , “infant
mental health” refers to the young child’s capacity to
experience, begin to regulate and express emotions,
form close and trusting relationships, explore the
environment and learn; (Greenough, Emde, Gunnar,
Massinga, & Shonkoff, 2001; Zeanah, 2009).
•There is wide consensus that the infant’s success in
meeting the emotional and behavioural goals of early
childhood is profoundly influenced by the relationship
foundations laid in infancy and sustained thereafter.

6. 7 POINTS OF CONSENSUS ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENTAL
NEEDS OF YOUNG CHILDREN IN FAMILIES LIVING APART
• #1: Early childhood (0-3 years inclusive) is a period critical to subsequent
psychosocial and emotional development and is deserving of special
attention and planning in family law matters.
• #2: Across all family structures, healthy development in the young child
rests on the capacity of caregivers to protect the child from physical harm
and undue stress by being a consistent, responsive presence.
• #3: Similarly, healthy development rests on the capacity of caregivers to
stimulate and support the child’s independent exploration and learning and
to handle the excitement and aggression that accompanies the process of
discovery.
• #4: Secure development in this phase requires multiple supports to create
both continuity and an expanding care-giving environment for the young
child that includes family, community, educational and cultural connections.

7. 7 POINTS OF CONSENSUS ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENTAL
NEEDS OF
YOUNG CHILDREN IN FAMILIES LIVING APART CONT...
• #5: A “both/and” perspective on early attachment formation and joint parental
involvement is warranted. The young child needs early, organized care-giving from at
least one, and most advantageously, more than one available care-giver. An optimal goal
is a “triadic secure base” constituted by both parents and the child as a family system,
where a healthy co-parenting environment supports the child’s attachment relationships
with each parent and vice versa.
• #6: The small group of relevant studies to date substantiates caution about high
frequency overnight time schedules in the 0-3 year period, particularly when the child’s
security with a parent is unformed, or parents cannot not agree on how to share care of
the child. Equally true, clinical and theoretical cautions against any overnight care during
the 0-3 years have not been supported.
• #7: Critical variables in considering readiness for and the likely impact of overnight
schedules include parents’ psychological and social resources, the current nature of

8. TOWARD DEVELOPMENTALLY
RESPONSIVE
PARENTING PLANS AND ORDERS
• McIntosh, Pruett & Kelly, 2014, take the view that Parenting plans or Orders
for the 0-3 year group have twin and mutually reinforcing responsibilities;
the first to foster developmental well being during the first three years and
the second to support the health of each parent-child relationship, now and
into the future.
• A set of three core assumptions prioritising both attachment organisation
and joint parental involvement whenever the conditions of safety and the
minimisation of stress are met, provides a critical context for the
considerations in decision making for determining post separation overnight
care of children aged 0-3 years.
• Clinical reasoning rests on these three levels of assumptions.

9. CLINICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR
DETERMINING POSTSEPARATION
OVERNIGHT CARE 0-3 YEARS
• 1. Safety – Child is safe with each parent and parents are safe with each other.
• 2. Child’s trust and security with each parent – continuing established trusting relationship
for at least 6 months, seeks comfort from and is soothed by other parent, support for
exploration.
• 3. Parental mental health – sensitivity with meeting child’s needs, none or well managed
drug, alcohol and mental health issues.
• 4. Child’s health and development – significant developmental and medical needs,
exclusive breast feeding or will not yet accept a bottle.
• 5. Child’s behavioural adjustment – persistent behaviours over 3-4 weeks; regression,
excessive clinging, frequent crying, aggression, low persistence in play and learning,
• 6. Co-parental relationship – civil communication, manage conflict, be consistent &
responsive with child’s schedule, value or accept each parents relationship with the child,

10. TOWARD DEVELOPMENTALLY
RESPONSIVE
PARENTING PLANS AND ORDERS
CONTD.....• 7. Resources to support sharing of overnights – can be main care giver,
manageable commuting, 1st option for primary carer .
• 8. Family factors – older siblings sharing similar overnight schedule –
security, grandparents, exposure to each parents cultural or religious
practices
First level assumptions : Parenting plans and orders made for children 0-3
years are developmentally supportive when they provide for a care giving
environment in which....
Second level assumptions : When level one assumptions are met, Parenting
plans;
2.1 Support the development of organised attachments...
2.2 Encourage parenting interactions that support the development and
maintenance

11. TOWARD DEVELOPMENTALLY
RESPONSIVE
PARENTING PLANS AND ORDERS
CONTD.....2.4. Reflect practical considerations ....
2.5. Maximise the amount of time the young child is cared for by one
parent...
2.6. Encourage shared decisions about major child-related issues...
Third level assumptions : When level one assumptions are not met;
3.1 The priority is to ensure that one organised attachment relationship
is formed...
3.2 Such circumstances may reflect characteristics or chronic
behaviours of one or both parents...
3.3 Some infants and toddlers will have two parents with a history of ...

12. CENTREPOINT: NATURE AND QUALITY OF
THE PARENT-CHILD
RELATIONSHIP
• McIntosh, Pruett and Kelly suggest that both attachment and parental
involvement perspectives point to a common centrepoint upon which
decisions about overnights are best grounded: the nature and quality of the
parent-child relationship .....
• In all families, an essential condition for implementation of overnight care in
the years 0 – 3 includes a pre-existing relationship with the non-resident
parent, generally for at least 6 months, in which the infant has been safe
and felt comforted. So, early overnights are more likely to occur with
parents who have lived together through pregnancy and in the early
months of the child’s life. Also, parents who are cooperative and mutually
invested in the child’s relationship with both parents.
• Patience will be needed while finding the right balance for the individual

13. MEANINGS FOR LEGISLATION AND POLICY
• In general when there are concerns about any key aspect of the child’s
development and/or the care giving environment, parenting plans that are
initially conservative about overnight frequency and that have built up steps,
are appropriate. Step ups would occur within a specified time frame, guided
by the young child’s adjustment to each change.
• McIntosh, Pruett and Kelly support co-parenting as a general rule and
principle. They also support the goals of developing parenting capacity and
supporting the deepening of skills and knowledge within each parent and
between parents, when ever possible.
• Availability of specialised parent-infant mental health interventions, parent
education programs for infancy through to age 3 and programs for high
conflict situations that help parents understand the impact of the destructive

14. CONCLUSION
So, in summary the current research findings from McIntosh, Pruett and
Kelly prioritise both the early establishment of organised attachment
and the early nurturance and maintenance of enduring relationships
between each parent and their child.
It is important to remember staggered or uneven development naturally
occurs in the 0-3 years as the child tackles a new or higher order
developmental challenge.
So, when a young child shows they cannot concurrently master both
attachment security and the developmental demands placed on him/her
by overnights delaying overnights may simply allow development to
catch up with the new challenge in a staggered progress .

15. CLOSING THOUGHTS
I am passionate about my work with separated
parents and their children. My personal guiding
philosophy is taken from Carl Rogers with an
apology and I quote; “the degree to which I can
create parental relationships which facilitate the
growth of their young children and the other as both
a separate person and as a parent, is a measure of
the growth I have achieved in myself.”
THANK YOU