Clinical-psychological assessment of a child negative attitude to a non-custodial parent in custody litigation

Abstract

In custody litigation, according to the Russian Family Code, the Court has to take into account the child attachment to his/her parents and children-parents relationships along with other conditions. The article is devoted to the clinical and psychological examination of the child’s negative attitude to the non-custodial parent in custody litigation. Based on complex psychiatric and psychological examination of 76 children four groups of children were identified: children with negative (40,8%), conflict (18,4%), positive (27,6%) and non-differentiated (13,2%) attitude to a non-custodial parent. Negative and conflict attitudes were shown to develop more frequently in children of primary-school and adolescent age living in families with maximal and high conflict level. Three main psychological mechanisms of development of negative and conflict attitudes were identified: negative experience of child-parent interaction, psychological induction and involvement into parents’ conflict with negative fixation to one of the parents. These psychological mechanisms are to be taken into account by the Court in order to estimate the child capability of making an independent decision on a place of residence and a non-custodial parent communication procedure.