Parenting Capacity Assessments Jeff Chang, Ph.D. , R. Psych Athabasca University and Calgary Family Therapy Centre April 11, 2019

Overview About me General thoughts about assessment psychological constructs and inferences formal assessment vs. general assessment: context History-taking vs. history making Static risk factors vs. dynamic risk factors

Overview Parenting capacity assessment What constructs are we talking about here? A high-stakes formal assessment process Legislatively driven Expert evidence Elements of a parenting capacity assessment

About Me Finished my MA in Counselling Psychology in 1985 at SFU Came to Calgary in 1986 Worked in children’s mental health agencies for 6 years – had some opportunity to do assessments of adolescent sex offenders for court Went into private practice in 1992 full-time

About Me Had contacts in southern Alberta from my adolescent sex offender work – they wanted someone to do parenting capacity assessments ramped up quickly Read lots, got some training, and paid for supervision Did my first bilateral custody evaluation in 1995 Had an opportunity to learn psychoeducational assessment when office was awarded a contract (1998)

About Me Divide my career into thirds Almost exclusively therapy About half therapy and half assessment Predominantly assessment Did a PhD in counselling psych from 2001 to 2008. Associate Professor/Program Director Master of Counselling Program at Athabasca University Wrote the assessment course

About Me Registered Psychologist since 1987 Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Did a PhD in counselling psych from 2001 to 2008. Associate Professor/Program Director Master of Counselling Program at Athabasca University Wrote the assessment course

About Me Current private practice “Parenting time/parenting responsibility assessments”, i.e. bilateral custody-access assessments “voice of the child” assessments Litigation support Supervision (provisional psychologists and consulting with agencies)

General thoughts about assessment Psychological constructs and inferences We are supposedly measuring psychological constructs using psychological tests “Test” is a differend – a word or phrase that means different things when used by different people – without having discussed it

General thoughts about assessment Parents whose child is having learning problems and judges who listen to testimony about parenting issues do not think of the word “test” like we do What’s the difference between measuring the level of a chemical in the blood and measuring the level of depression, intelligence, career interest, or introversion using a psychological test? Lyotard, J.-F. (1983). The differend: Phrases in dispute. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

General thoughts about assessment When we use psychological tests to measure psychological traits, we first have to invent the construct we are measuring before we can measure it. When we are measuring a chemical in the blood, what we are measuring already exists. We might have to discover it, but we are not inventing it.

General thoughts about assessment When we use psychological tests to measure psychological traits, we first have to invent the construct we are measuring before we can measure it. When we are measuring a chemical in the blood, what we are measuring already exists. We might have to discover it, but we are not inventing it.

General thoughts about assessment Formal assessment vs. general assessment Basic distinction: College of Alberta Psychologists defines formal assessment as a report written for a third party decision-maker: Court Disability insurer or workers’ comp Child protection authority School division General assessment: collecting assessment data and making inferences to formulate treatment

General thoughts about assessment History-taking vs. History-making Why do we take history? Is history static? Does the interviewer’s epistemology matter?

Continuum of interviewer’s questions Orienting intent Influencing intent

General thoughts about assessment Static Risk Factors vs Dynamic Risk Factor Are static risk factors all that static?

Parenting Capacity…. Back to Constructs Let’s deconstruct the construct of Parenting Capacity…. What are some of the factors that comprise parenting capacity