MATERNAL NEGLECT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD AND THE LIMITS OF JOINT CUSTODY: A SOCIO-LEGAL ANALYSIS UNDER THE PRINCIPLE OF THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD

Abstract

This article analyzes the complex relationship between maternal neglect in early childhood (0 to 6 years) and the application of shared custody after marital dissolution. Based on a socio-legal approach grounded in the author's professional career as a social worker and judicial expert, the study investigates the collision between the general rule of Law No. 13,058/2014 and the principles of Integral Protection and the Best Interest of the Child. The research, qualitative and bibliographic in nature, examines the legal foundations of the Federal Constitution and the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), highlighting the devastating and often irreversible psychosocial impacts of the omission of care and affection on child development. It also discusses the viability of civil liability for affective abandonment and the sanctions of suspension or loss of parental power in cases of serious neglect. It concludes that shared custody should not be applied automatically when it represents a risk to the minor's integrity, highlighting social expertise as an indispensable technical instrument to support judicial decisions that guarantee the effective protection of the child.