Court Opinion

ID: 9674781
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:35:14.906172+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:29.654402
License: Public Domain

HOGAN, Judge,
concurring.
I fully concur in all that is said in the principal opinion. Nevertheless, I wish to state my reasons for concurrence specially, in the sure and certain knowledge that I shall sound officious and repetitive.
In the first place, there is much respectable authority, apart from § 452.375(1) and (2), RSMo 1978, for the proposition that upon a motion to modify, a child’s articulated preference, provided he is mature enough to make a discriminating choice, is a factor as much entitled to consideration as changes in the child’s environment, the parents’ behavior, or any other fact or circumstance which can be called a “change of condition.” Cook v.Cook, 77 U.S.App.D.C. 388, 135 F.2d 945, 947 (1943); Vilas v. Vilas, 184 Ark. 352, 42 S.W.2d 379, 381-382[1][2] (1931); duPont v. duPont, 216 A.2d 674, 680-681[21, 22] (Del.1966); Hepler v. Hepler, 195 Va. 611, 79 S.E.2d 652, 658-*249659[12][13] (1954); 2 Nelson, Divorce and Annulment, § 15.19 at 260-263 (2d ed. 1961). I feel very strongly that if we undertake to decide at second hand the weight to be accorded a child’s preference, and to decide that he was gulled into testifying as he did, we usurp the trial court’s function.
I have declaimed as fervently as any judge in support of the natural mother’s right to the custody of her child, Stockton v. Guthary, 415 S.W.2d 308, 312-313[7, 8][9-11] (Mo.App.1967), but Dwayne is no infant, dependent on his mother for his ordinary, everyday needs. In my view, the controlling circumstance in this case is that Dwayne is beginning his period of puberty and adolescence. Above all, he needs a familiar, stable environment in which to cope with the physiological and psychological stresses he will experience. It has been said that:
“Adolescence is usually considered a period of severe physiological and psychological stresses for the average child during which he engages in the psychological process [known] as ego-synthesis, whereby he forms his adult identity. The physiological changes occurring during adolescence are believed to alter radically [the child’s] drives and desires; he now inspects and evaluates the tentative personality he has developed during his childhood and forms a new ‘adult’ personality. . . . Moreover, the child’s pubertal strivings to form a consistent identity are usually facilitated by continuity of relationships within his family, peer groups, and environment.”1
In my opinion, the plaintiff’s new marriage and removal to a much different environment will require a considerable adjustment on her part; it is more than likely that Dwayne’s removal from familiar circumstances into close association with unfamiliar custodians would result in undesirable emotional trauma at a time when he is ill-equipped to deal with it.
Finally, I would note that the trial court’s decree does not deprive the child of substantial association with his mother; he will have visits with his mother and her recently-acquired spouse. As he matures, he may, and in all probability will, decide for himself whether he prefers to live with his father or with his mother, and act accordingly. I therefore concur.

. A. Freud, Adolescence, 13 Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 255, 268-269 (1958), cited in Note, Alternatives to “Parental Right” in Child Custody Disputes Involving Third Parties, 73 Yale L.J. 151, 167, n.67 (1963).