Psychologists' understanding of the best interests of the child criterion

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dc.contributor.authorJameson, Barbara Jeanen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-14T17:53:13Z
dc.date.available2024-08-14T17:53:13Z
dc.date.copyright1992en_US
dc.date.issued1992
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Psychology
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThis study examined the beliefs of a sample of British Columbia psychologists (N =78) regarding the importance of specific "Best Interests of the Child" criteria when making custody and access recommendations. Participants completed a 60 item Best Interests of the Child Questionnaire (BICQ) developed from previous research, the divorce literature, and legal statutes. As hypothesized, the internal consistency of three dimensions was confirmed: (1) a relational dimension which consisted of the parent-­parent relationship scale and the child-parent relationship scale; (2) a qualities/abilities of the parents dimension focused on how well each parent could meet the child's needs; and (3) a needs of the child dimension which examined specific concerns such as health needs (Coefficient Alpha =.80, .89, and .91 respectively). Principal components analyses (varimax rotation) indicated that a factor structure exists within each dimension. Two factors were revealed on both the parent-parent relation ship scale and the child-parent scale: Willingness to Share Parenting and Parental Conflict/Cooperation for the former; Quality of Child-Parent Relationships and Parental Commitment to the Child on the latter. Three factors were revealed on the qualities/abilities of the parents dimension: Stability, Parental History. and Parenting Skills; and two factors were revealed on the needs of the child dimension : Developmental Sensitivity and Pragmatic Need of the Child. Multivariate analyses of factor means, with area of registration as a covariate, revealed significant differences between the rankings of psychologists who have never done custody/access assessments and those who have done assessments on the Needs of the Child dimension (R < .01). An examination of group differences in factor means revealed a significant main effect for gender (p < .02). A rank ordering of the 60 criteria according to item means was also compiled for the total sample, for the have done and never had done assessment groups, and for gender. The implications of these findings are discussed, and suggested directions for future research are provided. These results may be useful to clinicians who assist the courts in interpreting the Best Interests of the Child Criterion.en
dc.format.extent115 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/18298
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectUN SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutionsen
dc.titlePsychologists' understanding of the best interests of the child criterionen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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