This paper draws on our recent study of the meaning of home for children and young people after parental separation to show how the concept of home may provide a way of shifting adult attention beyond focus on the amount of parenting time towards a greater attentiveness to children and young people’s views on how their living arrangements look and can work effectively for them. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 68 children and young people aged 8–18 years, and 39 of their parents, living mostly in cities in Victoria, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory. Separated parents and their children were recruited mainly through social media, family and relationship support services, and professional networks. Viewed overall, we found that children and young people’s, and parent’s, descriptions of what home meant to them and how they sought to make a home conveyed the centrality of relationships, safety and economic resources to shaping home.

Polarisation is a common dynamic in family law cases, but in recent years has increasingly infected both public debates and professional discourse about families and children. These cases currently take place against a background of youth mental health crises and widespread dissemination of vaguely defined and emotionally loaded terms, questionably reliable science, heavily biased information, and advocacy based on snippets of selected information. In the US and Canada, these dynamics have led to distortions and ill-conceived legislation that can directly threaten the safety and availability of services to children. Dr. Greenberg will discuss these dynamics and their impact on court-involved family therapy, as well as best practices for addressing issues and promoting children’s well being.

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