Linda Nielsen

[1] In her research, Nielsen has shown that shared parenting, where a child of divorced parents spends approximately equal time with the father and the mother, generates better health, mental and social outcomes; and that a daughters’ academic and career achievements are closely related to the quality of her childhood relationships with her father.

[2][3][4] Reviewing 60 comparative research studies on shared parenting, Nielsen found that in 34 of the studies, the children with a shared parenting arrangement had better outcomes on all of the measured variables for well-being, compared with children living in a sole custody arrangement.

The results were similar for the subset of studies that adjusted for socio-economic variables and the level of conflict between parents.

The variable with the smallest difference was academic achievement, for which only 3 out 10 studies showed an advantage for shared parenting.

[6] Nielsen has conducted extensive research on the importance of father–daughter relationships both during childhood on subsequent adult life, with a special emphasis on the relationship between daughters and divorced fathers.