Current interdisciplinary practices for assessing the best interest of the child in high conflict divorce and parental alienation cases worldwide: scoping review

  • Laletas, Stella (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI))
  • Alexander, Renata (Chief Investigator (CI))

    Project: Research

    Project Details

    Project Description

    Assessing the best interests of a child means to evaluate and balance “all the elements necessary to make a decision in a specific situation for a specific individual child or group of children” as stated in Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. When assessing children’s best interest in custody cases, it is important to understand the legal, social and psychological issues and considerations that can have an impact on the child’s mental health and well-being. For children of high conflict parenting and parent alienation, there is a knowledge and practice gap in determining the safety and best interest of a child in complex cases where parents are affected by a mental illness, and/or make false allegations; and/or engage in alienating behaviours. The scoping review aims to identify and review current practices; as well as provide foundational knowledge about best practices that integrate expertise from two complementary disciplines: Developmental Psychology and Family Law.
    StatusFinished
    Effective start/end date1/09/1931/12/19

    Keywords

    • Child custody disputers
    • Family law system
    • Child and adolescent mental health
    • Developmental Psychology
    • High conflict divorce
    • Parental Alienation Dynamics