Promoting Parenting Plans:A New Role for the Psychologist as Expert in Custody Disputes

This paper argues that existing adversarial approachesto post-divorce custody rulings are neither in thebest interests of the child nor consistent withobligations to children under the United NationsConvention on the Rights of the Child. The traditionalrole of psychologists acting as experts in divorceproceedings has been to determine custody and accessarrangements by evaluating parental fitness. It isargued that this role should be altered and expandedto a process that is threefold. Specifically, it issuggested that the role of the psychologist acting asan expert in divorce custody proceedings should be to:(1) inform the courts about children's rights underthe Convention, (2) inform the courts about children'sneeds as identified in the developmental psychologyresearch literature, and (3) assist with methods ofjoint legal custody determinations that arechild-centered and constitute family reorganizationrather than family dissolution. It is suggested thatthe third role may be best accomplished through theuse of a Parenting Plan that allows custodialdecisions to meet the goals of child-centereddecision-making, continued meaningful involvement ofboth parents in the child's life, and reducedinter-parental conflict.