Numerous states have set legal precedents regarding child custody disputes where the non-biological parent is determined to be a “psychological parent” and is therefore able to retain custody. In 1973, Goldstein, Freud, and Solnit, wrote their landmark book, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child. They opined:

Whether an adult becomes the psychological parent of a child is based thus on day-to-day interaction, companionship, and shared experiences. The role can be fulfilled either by a biological parent or by an adoptive parent or by any other caring adult—but never by an absent, inactive adult, whatever his biological or legal relationship to the child may be.

In Troxel v. Granville, the Supreme Court of the United States held that parents have a protected liberty interest in the care, custody and control of their children that is a fundamental right protected by the Due Process Clause. Notwithstanding this precedent, South Carolina’s “Psychological Parent Doctrine ” is not atypical of the way other states approach the issue of the concept of being a “psychological parent.” Enunciated by a Court of Appeals of South Carolina in 2006, it permits a “psychological parent” — read that as someone who is not a parent — to seek custody of or to be awarded the right to have access to and rights to periodic possession of or visitation with a child. To prove this relationship exists, there is a four-prong test. The petitioner must demonstrate:

  • That the natural or adoptive parent[s] consented to and fostered the petitioner’s formation and establishment of a parent-like relationship with the child;
  • That the petitioner and the child lived together in the same household;
  • That the petitioner assumed obligations of parenthood by taking significant responsibility for the child’s care without an expectation of financial compensation;
  • That the petitioner has acted in a parental role long enough to develop a bonded, parental relationship with the child.

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