Proceedings of family laws comprise of a wide range of issues including support, custody, visitation, maintenance, relocation, valuation, and termination of the rights of parents. Child custody is one of the major concerns during a separation or divorce of parents, and it can be a complicated and challenging process. In this context, child custody in legal terms means to control and care of children during separation or divorce. Usually, the parent who does not have the custody have the rights of access that is, visiting and inquiring about the children’s well-being. As such, child custody can be decided by an agreement between the spouses or through the court. When the court is involved, assessment is done as part of the process of the court in deciding what is in the best interest of the child. The evaluation is usually conducted by a professional like psychologists who meet the parents and children many times to perform tests and draw observations and then make recommendations to the court to whom can have the child custody among the parents. On this background, this paper focus to discuss child custody evaluation regarding the assessment areas, the meaning of best interest and the importance of children having to participate in their child custody issue. Then finally, a concluding paragraph.
The assessment used by courts to determine child custody
When courts determine a child’s custody, they use recommendations given by a psychologist after a thorough and critical evaluation. These assessment areas include; the preference of the child’s place to live, education and unique needs of the child, sibling’s relationship, the physical and mental health of the parents. Also, the assessment areas consist of the work schedule, and finances of parents, ethics and cultural issues especially when parents are from different backgrounds, the psychological and physical state of the child, and parental alienation. Other factors of assessment are religion, conflict resolution techniques between the parents, social support systems and the parent’s values and ethics. The purposes of these assessments are to help the court to determine or decide what is in the best interest of the child, which is the center of focus during child custody. As such, during the assessment, the court instructs the evaluator to consider the connections between parent and child, recognize and guard the opportunities for the child’s maintenance of the attachment figures continuity, and assess how the attachments have to get into the forensic commendations (Herman, 2007).
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The best of a child interest, in the context of cases of child custody, refer to the discussions which courts undertake while determining what types of actions, orders, or services will best serve the well-being of a child as well as the parent best suited for caring to the child. This means the ultimate objective of these deliberations is to foster and encourage the child’s security, happiness, mental health, and emotional growth into young adulthood. The discussions are made after the court considering some factors listed above in the assessment area (Kelly, 2007).
The thought of having a child to participate in the issue of their custody is to ensure the accuracy of factors used to determine the custody. This is because when a child engages in the psychologists meetings of tests, the child will be able to communicate what matters in his/her life. As such, psychologists will have the best information at hand that they will apply to make recommendations at the court instead of assumptions or opinion from parents only, which may be exaggerated, and hence, leading to misjudgment of the “the best interest of the child” (Powell & Lancaster, 2003).
In conclusion, child custody is a very critical issue in the family law. To determine the best interest of the child with no biases, psychologists through the help of courts should listen attentively and denotes the concerns of parents and parents, make sound recommendations to the court, and hence, a fair judgment on deliberation of the assessment factors and finally, custody of the child.
References
Herman, S. P. (2007). Practice parameters for child custody evaluation. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry , 36 (10), 57S-68S.
Kelly, J. B. (2007). The best interests of the child. Family Court Review , 35 (4), 377-387.
Powell, M. B., & Lancaster, S. (2003). Guidelines for interviewing children during child custody evaluations. Australian Psychologist , 38 (1), 46-54.
