An Empirical Investigation of Psychologists' Custody Evaluation Procedures

Abstract

The current study was designed to define the current standard of practice for custody evaluation among psychologists seen as highly “credible” by family law attorneys. The study consisted of three phases: (1) A survey of 20% of licensed psychologists in Virginia to determine how many conduct custody evaluations, (2) A survey of family law attorneys to obtain nominations for “credible” custody evaluators, and (3) A survey of the credible psychologists about their training, attitudes and standards and practices. Most of the psychologists, both from the broad 20% sampling and the “credible” sample reported self-teaching being the primary method of training. The surveyed psychologists generally showed agreement about the relevant variables to assess in a custody evaluation, which was consistent with the important variables in research on post-divorce child adjustment. Psychologists also showed generally high agreement in rating the importance of a series of variables used to consider recommending sole custody or joint custody. Most psychologists rely primarily on a clinical interview, or adapt measures of psychopathology to assess parenting and family functioning. Fewer use home observations or surprise visits to gather information about family functioning. These results suggest a need for better training of custody evaluators and better standardization of custody evaluations to ensure high quality assessments with minimal clinician bias.

Key Words:

• Child custody evaluations
• variables in child custody evaluations