1. High conflict Divorce and child adjustment
What we know and don’t know about exposure to trauma and child adjustment
Kelly M. Champion PhD ABPP
Clinical and Forensic Psychologist
Cadeus Behavioral Health

2. Objectives
Describe prolonged conflict over parental custody and access to parenting time.
Describe mental health roles in courts related to these contests.
Discuss the ethical and professional risks associated with court-involved families.
Identify resources related to responding to allegations of child exposure to violence.

3. Expert Witness to the Facts
Mental Health Roles
Expert Witness to the Facts
Reports on individual functioning
Custody evaluations
Forensic Experts Witness
Answers questions related to science
Answers limited questions about case

4. Contested parenting time
court contests
Contested parenting time
Disagree on child needs/ desires
New partners
Relocations
Concerns related to quality of care
Allegations of abuse

5. Longitudinal Case study
Wallerstien & Lewis (2004)
25 year in-depth qualitative study
Domestic violence had lasting impact
Loss of $ resources in college
Time vs. quality of relationship

6. increased risk for maladjustment
Risk and adjustment
increased risk for maladjustment
variability in group is big
very small effects
relatively higher than never married
75% - 90% of adults = well-being to adults from intact families

7. Parenting evaluations
Minimize risks for evaluators & children
consistent and transparent
fair
relevant to legal standards
knowledgeable of violence / abuse

8. Parent behaviors Child adjustment Safe, secure, nurturing
Time within limits
Responsive, child centered
Children value
Fairness – financial, emotional

9. Risk and adjustment
Child characteristics
Level of disruptions
Changing parent roles and behaviors
Parent stress and distress
All interact

10. divorced, never married, separated
Parenting Evaluations
Limited outcome research
Comprehensive
Parenting Time, decision making
Education, extra-curricular
Best Interests

11. standards of professional practice
Parenting evalutions
standards of professional practice
APA Guidelines for Child Custody Evaluations in Family Law Proceedings (2010)
APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2017)

12. divorced, never married, separated
Parenting evaluations
protect the physical & psychology well-being of the child
minimize litigation
inform the court
one evaulator
ethical, professional, informed

13. Challenges
Based on research on groups
Recommendations for individuals
How to weight factors?
What to assess? How?
Draw meaningful conclusions using all the resources.

14. Challenges Variable of time Applying research
behavior over time e.g. pre-divorce
child’s age and developemntal stage
Applying research
Expert in evaluating research
Court challenges
Misuse of resarch problemmatic

15. What is high conflict divorce?
Ongoing contested parenting time
Controversial term
Objective measure: court resources spent
Conflict means equal
Adult oriented not child-focused
Unclear violence to bitter anger

16. High conflict Lack of clear definition
Sometimes aggression; sometimes not
20% of children grow up in home
Hostility high before, during, after
Parent who cooperatively solve child- related problems raise better adjusted children
True among divorced families

17. High Conflict
Consensus
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
National Counsel of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Interpersonal Violence (IPV) describes a powerful aggressor using violence and coercion to control a victim.

18. Risk and adjustment Complex task Require
Multiple players all different
In state of transition
research not specific
Require
evaluating research
careful application
avoidance of advocacy

19. Evaluations attend to factors that increase risk
Parenting and courts
Evaluations attend to factors that increase risk
Pre-parent separation factors
Context matters Amato (2003)
High conflict better after separation
Low conflict worse after separation

20. Typology of violence
Typologies don’t fit clearly and aren’t in service settings
Minimizes the risk of harm with words alone
Implies no need for scrutiny
neglects correlation with child abuse
Requires careful assessment

21. Expert Witness to the Facts
Mental Health Roles
Expert Witness to the Facts
Reports onf individual functioning
Custody Evaluations
Forensic Experts Witness
Answers questions related to science
Answers limited questions about case

22. Evaluators who have no knowledge of IPV have erroneous beliefs
Over estimate exponentially false reports
Don’t adequate assess for DV or evidence
Fail to appreciate the harm to child

23. Child refuses contact or otherwise rejects a parent
Parent Alienation
Child refuses contact or otherwise rejects a parent
Promoted by advocates
e.g. A Baker’s research described as longitudinal but collaged at one time
“diagnose” with only record review
25 years no researc support

24. Parent Alienation Richard Gardner
Practitioner who inflated credentialed and lied
Attributed child rejection to other parent without evidence
Treatment is removal of child from home / no contact
Advocates make these recommendations

25. Alienated Child
Not accepted in courts
ABA “junk science”
Child protection first

26. APA WORKING GROUP REPORT: TRAUMA & SEXUAL ABUSE (1998)
“The history of human trauma and its aftermath is one marked by discovery and recognition offset by recoil, denial, and neglect. . . (and) meets the needs of perpetrators who, as a group, use denial to mask their abuses.

27. Resources
American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children
American Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
National Child Traumatic Stress Network

28. evaluations
Family Evaluation in Custody Litigation: Promoting Optimal Outcomes and Reducing Ethical Risks
by G. A. H. Benjamin, C. J. Beck, M. Shaw, and R. Geffner
(2018) American Psychological Association