The Custody Evaluation Handbook: Research Based Solutions & Applications

Barry Bricklin Ph.D. | English, 1995

Joint custody. Same-sex custody. Young children with the mother. Which is the best arrangement? Unfortunately, for those who seek a trustworthy solution, research has proven that there is no single best arrangement for all children. This timely volume, however, does offer a practical and realisic methodology with which to confront the challenging and often confusing issues facing the custody evaluator. The Custody Evaluation Handbook offers a helpful model for evaluating and assigning weight to the mountains of disparate information accumulated during a custody evaluation. The book advocates for a test-based approach that measures how successful each parent actually is at the job of parenting. The book describes numerous tests and tools for eliciting reliable information from both children and parents. The author emphasizes obtaining measurements from the involved child. Parent tests are designed to reflect the effectiveness with which a parent responds to typical childcare situations, and the degree to which a parent truly knows — and can satisfy the needs of — a particular child. Clearly spelling out the targets of a truly comprehensive and reliable evaluation, The Custody Evaluation Handbook will be a valuable book for custody evaluators and marriage and family therapists, as well as other involved mental health professionals.