Shared Parenting and Never‐Married Families

This commentary on the AFCC Think Tank Report identifies the social, legal, and economic barriers to shared parenting that disproportionately impact never‐married, low‐income, A frican American, and Latino parents, including difficulties establishing parental rights, maternal gatekeeping, lack of access to legal services, and the norm of economic fatherhood. This commentary argues that, by focusing on divorcing parents to the exclusion of nonmarital families, the Report missed an opportunity to address the needs of children who are most likely to experience poor outcomes associated with single‐parent families. Key Points for the Family Court Community Parents who were never married to each other are significantly less likely than divorced parents to share parenting. Never married parents are disproportionately racial and ethnic minorities. Never married and low‐income parents face many obstacles to shared parenting. The law does little to facilitate shared parenting of nonmarital children. Policy makers should explore how low‐income, never married African American parents attempt to share parenting without formal parenting plans.