Professional Preparation And Practices Of Child Custody Evaluators: A Comparative Study Of Masters-level And Doctoral-level Practitioners

Abstract

While a substantial amount of the research on child custody evaluation practices has focused on psychologists and psychiatrists, virtually none of the existing research has addressed child custody evaluation practices of social workers or other mental health professionals. This study explores and describes the training and practice differences between doctoral-level child custody evaluators, primarily psychologists, and their masters-level counterparts, who are drawn from a much wider professional background. The exact population of evaluators in the community is unknown, thus a snowball sampling method was utilized for outreach to evaluators who then provided responses to a survey instrument. Statistical comparisons of current practices across a wide variety of areas are examined. Multiple implications for practice, current policy, and future research are presented.