Earlier this year, Public Policy Polling conducted a survey of 580 Old Line State voters regarding their attitudes toward shared parenting and Maryland law on child custody.
A whopping 79 percent of respondents said they thought fathers and mothers should receive equal treatment by family courts in child custody decisions.
Additionally, 63 percent said they favored changing state law to “create a starting point whereby joint legal and physical custody – commonly referred to as shared parenting – for approximately equal periods of time is viewed as being in the best interests of the child.” Only 15 percent said they opposed such a change.
Not only that, but support for a change in the law crossed all boundaries of gender, race and political persuasion. Substantial majorities of men and women, Republicans and Democrats, whites, African-Americans and other races support reform of child custody laws. By any definition, that’s a landslide victory for shared parenting.
That’s right in line with similar surveys in Canada and the United Kingdom that consistently find 70 to 80 percent of respondents favoring shared parenting.