Conceptual and empirical issues in child custody evaluations

Mental health professionals evaluate families involved in custody disputes in order to provide information and make placement or visitation recommendations. This article explores the value, theoretical, empirical, and measurement issues in child custody evaluations. We conclude that (1) value issuer need to be explicated, (2) theories need to be developed so that relevant variables are specified and their relationships to outcome states are hypothesised, (3) further longitudinal research on the adjustment process of divorce needs to be conducted, and (4) valid assessment strategies need to be developed to assess relevant constructs. Given the state of knowledge in each of these problem areas, we argue that currently mental health professionals may have little accurate information or warranted recommendations to offer.