ISSUES IN FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY
Child Custody Evaluations

1. Child custody evaluations must address three related questions: (1) What are the distinctive needs of the children whose custody is disputed?, (2) What are the parental strengths and limitations of the parental figures competing for custody?, and (3) What custodial arrangement amounts to the best match given considerations of the children's needs, and the parents' strengths and limitations?
   
   
2. Because of the profound changes in life circumstances created by divorce, post-decree parental effectiveness is not always predicted by pre-decree effectiveness.
   
   
3. Effective parents respond to their children in an "authoritative" manner as oppossed to "authoritarian" or "permissive" styles. Authoritative parents establish clearly defined expectations and limits for their children, consistently enforce those expectations and limits with sanctions when necessary, encourage open and honest two-way communication, and relate to their children with an awareness of each child's capabilities.
   
   
4. The significance a psychologist assigns to a child's expressed custodial preference must be interpreted with regard to the child's chronological age and psychological maturity. Unfortunately, the extent to which a child's expressed preference reflects parental indoctrination must always be considered.
   
   
5. More than any other factor, the extent of conflict between separated parents influences how well their children adjust to divorce. When discord between divorced parents declines, the post-divorce adjustment of their children improves.
   
   
6. Psychologists undertaking custody evaluations tend to rely excessively on psychological tests despite the inappropriateness of doing so. Psychological tests, for example, do not directly assess parental effectiveness. Relying on projective psychological tests such as the Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Children Apperception Test (CAT), and projective drawings (DAP, H-T-P) is especially ill-advised.
   
   
7. Recently developed procedures for child custody evaluations still remain at an experimental stage of development. These procedures include the ASPECT (Ackerman-Schoendorf Scales for Parent Evaluation of Custody), the Bricklin Perceptual Scales (and the related PORT, or Perception of Relationships Test), and the Child Abuse Potential Inventory. Psychologists who base their findings and recommendations on these procedures warrant vigorous cross-examination.

If you are dealing with a child custody dispute, you may want to order reprints of any of the following articles authored by Dr. Campbell.

Child custody evaluations and appropriate standards of psychological practice. Michigan Bar Journal, March 1992, 71, 278-283. (Order article #1, cost $10.00).

Psychotherapy with children of divorce: The pitfalls of triangulated relationships. Psychotherapy, 1992, 29, 646-652. (Order article #8, cost $10.00).

© 2005 Dr. Terence W. Campbell, Ph.D.