44 Factors of a Child Custody Evaluation (Psych Eval)

1. Prioritizes the parental role (already has adapted his/her life and interests to accommodate the demands of the children.)
2. Physically available to children.
3. Continuity of relationship
–History of greater direct daily care of children
–History of sufficient attention to the children’s emotional needs
4. Knowledgeable about children’s developmental/educational progress
5. Knowledgeable about each child’s relative strengths and weaknesses
6. Awareness of each child’s special needs
7. Capacity to meet the needs of each child
8. Demonstrates eye contact and physical closeness with children
9. Reciprocates physical affection
10. Speaks and plays at child’s level
11. Offers clarifications, reflections, praise
12. Accurately interprets child’s questions and statements
13. Encourages emotional expression
14. Promotes child’s emotional awareness and identification of feelings in self and others
15. Expresses pleasure and pride to child
16. Proud of child’s accomplishments, yet permits failure
17. Encourages independence
18. Permits disagreement without excessive criticalness
19. Patient regarding child’s displays of autonomy
20. Makes reasonable demands for mastery of tasks
21. Facilitates self-control and age-appropriate delay of gratification
22. Creativity in diverting child’s inappropriate behavior toward imaginative play
23. Capacity to assist child with problem-solving by using logic or constructive fantasy to explore alternatives
24. Skillful in setting limits without invoking fear or giving in to child’s demands
25. Understands child’s needs for controls, rules, expectations
26. Accepts normal range of aggressive feelings in child
27. Stimulates child’s natural curiosity
28. Assists child with self-satisfaction through modeling, play, or humor
29. Realistically appraises child’s post-separation needs
30. Recognizes importance of other parent to the child
31. Has few unresolved emotional issues regarding the marriage and divorce
32. Does not model resentful attitudes toward the other gender
33. Adequately protects child from the parental conflicts
34. Does not use child as messenger/informant
35. Cooperates in providing physical access of child to the other parent
36. Perpetuates child’s relationships with significant others existing prior to separation
37. Capacity to tolerate other parent’s childrearing practices
38. Does not project own feelings onto child (i.e. able to facilitate child’s development as unique individual)
39. Good internal coping resources under stress
40. Capacity to demonstrate good judgment and to make appropriate decisions
41. No potential for role-reversal with child to fulfill parent’s needs to be cared for
42. Stimulates socialization/encourages interaction with others
43. Capacity to control own impulses (so as not to endanger child’s safety)
44. Models respect for property and rights of others