About

Dr. Ruth Nichols is a researcher and author with years of experience on the issues of family systems, child custody, and family court rulings. Dr. Nichols completed her dissertation, “Family Court Rulings Linked to Parent-Child Relationships,” in 2024 at Loma Linda University’s School of Behavioral Health, which that year conferred upon her the Research Excellence Award. She holds master’s degrees in psychology from Pepperdine University and Loma Linda University, and is a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE), a credential issued by the National Council on Family Relations.

The parent-child relationship is the cornerstone of Ruth’s work, which she has explored since 2008. That year, she came across an article on post-divorce living arrangements, specifically the importance of living arrangements on children’s future relationships with their fathers. This idea inspired her to look into parenting arrangements, previously known as child custody, and the impacts of the family courts that oversee them.

Starting in 2014, Ruth began her research in order to understand the parental experience in family court and the impact on the parent-child relationship, launching her first website, Co-Parenting Confessional, as a place for parents to share their thoughts and feelings. In 2015, she created and implemented a 15-point survey asking parents to describe their relationships with their children before and after their divorce, as well as their experience in family court; 335 parents responded. In 2020, she created another survey, this time documenting parents’ financial experiences within family court; 977 responded. For several years, Ruth has been involved with groups seeking legislative changes to existing laws regarding co-parenting arrangements: in 2019 she received the Volunteer of the Year from Americans for Equal Shared Parenting and Advocate of the Month from Families United Action Network (FUAN) (September).

Ruth’s 2024 doctoral dissertation filled a gap in research by assessing the legal and physical aspects of parenting arrangements according to the percentage of time parents were awarded in initial (temporary) and final (permanent) family court decisions. Her experience working with parents and groups in this arena resulted in her gathering 654 participants for an 85-point survey that she developed for her dissertation. During the data analysis process, Ruth began to develop a nuanced understanding of the impact of family court on the family unit. This led her to see each viewpoint of the process — the parents, the child, relatives, and the family court itself — as facets of a prism. Ruth saw this as a fitting metaphor and chose to name her model The Family Prism Approach.