Frequency of child custody evaluation complaints and related disciplinary action: A survey of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards.

Abstract

Psychologists who conduct child custody evaluations take their practices into a most challenging and stressful area. This study surveyed the 61 member boards of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) about number and category of child custody complaints in the last decade, number of findings against psychologists, and related disciplinary action. Results reveal that psychologists who accept work in this area are extremely likely to also encounter the anguish of defending a related licensure board complaint at some point. A persuasive domestic lawyer calls you seeking a child custody evaluation relating to her client whose wife has taken the kids and left him for another person. She offers a large retainer fee to secure your services and makes it very clear that the legal team's strategy is to launch an adversarial assault campaign in support of winning the custody battle. What would you do? How would you handle the request? Is your office staff adequately prepared to handle similar calls? How would you proceed toward the evaluation? What would be the likelihood that you would hear from your licensure board later with a formal complaint? The area of child custody evaluations is potentially one of the most stressful and difficult for psychologists because of high levels of emotionality and acrimony associated with the process and the participants. In a recent large-scale survey of Texas psychologists, Montgomery, Cupit, and Wimberly (1999) found that child custody cases were second only to sexual misconduct cases in terms of likelihood for occurrence of board complaints and malpractice actions. Because of these factors, it is speculated that child custody