Introduction: Family court review special issue on the importance of cultural considerations in parental access matters

Parental access and custody disputes exacerbate the stress that families in transition are already experiencing as they navigate toward a new normal. While some families are able to establish the new normal for themselves, other families want or require the assistance of family law professionals to determine issues related to access and navigating the reconfiguration of the family. In such cases, a key role of the family law professional is to make recommendations and/or decisions that are in the best interest of the child and that help the family transition adaptively. Families are becoming increasingly diverse, with parents sometimes having notable differences in lifestyles and values based on lived experiences as persons from a particular race, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability, age, and other aspects of identity. As such, it becomes ever more critical to consider the relevance of culture in family law practice. This understanding is essential because culture can influence parenting beliefs and practices, the dynamics of the co-parenting relationship, and the dynamics of the parent–child relationship. Culture is an important variable to understand in relation to a child's needs and development. Furthermore, how a parent thinks about family roles and how the family should function before, during, and after a significant change to the family structure (e.g., a breakup, separation, or divorce) may often be shaped by culture. Like those in so many other fields of practice, family law professionals have become increasingly aware that this work requires a greater understanding of individual differences and diversity so that we are ultimately providing culturally safe and responsive services to the family as a unit and also the individual members. This means accepting that the beliefs and practices of one parent or family may not be the same as another, yet may be appropriate or as healthy. Family law professionals are also encouraged to move away from a “one-size-fits-all” application of measures, concepts, norms, and recommendations. One might even argue that family law professionals are ethically responsible for offering conclusions and decisions that reflect and respect the family's values, practices, and beliefs, so long as the above are aligned with the law and do not jeopardize safety or wellbeing. Being better informed and aware of the potential role of culture in family law practice necessitates “cultural curiosity,” which is an understanding that we do not know what we do not know while also appreciating and exploring individual differences and similarities. This process is a continuous journey of increasing one's intercultural and intracultural knowledge, which in turn improves one's capacity to work with individuals from different cultures. Thus, this special issue has two primary aims. One aim is to highlight the unique needs that exist for some families and how individual and cultural differences may affect family and individual functioning, norms, and needs. Additionally, we hope this special issue provides information that is useful for practical application in child access matters. Several articles include specific information that might guide decisions and recommendations in a way that is tailored, helpful, and respects the agency of the family, as the often template-driven sets of recommendations developed for many disputing parents frequently leave them in conflict with how to resolve a Christmas overlapping Hannukah challenge. Keeping the above in mind, this special issue features articles addressing the difficulty LGBTQ+ youth experience from society and how family court professionals can better understand risk and protective factors for LGBTQ+ youth in parental access cases; discussing how understanding the nuances of religion can help family law professionals facilitate more equitable and satisfactory outcomes for families from different cultural backgrounds; emphasizing the unique challenges that Veterans and military service members face in parental access matters, and ways to address and ameliorate said barriers; discussing how courts have handled cultural considerations in family law cases; focusing on how the family court system can reduce harm to transgender youth in family law cases; introducing the potential relevancy of ethnic-racial identity formation to parental access cases involving multiracial/ethnic and transracial families; and discussing the increase in the number of publications focusing on individual differences over the past decade, along with discussions of considerations for future research. To that end, the articles in this special issue provide scholarship regarding some aspects of diversity while acknowledging that there are many other aspects of diversity that this special issue does not reflect. In the end, we hope that this survey of articles and special topics will increase the cultural curiosity and humility of family law practitioners and further personal and professional awareness regarding issues of diversity.