Psychological Examinations in Lawsuits Involving Suspected Parental Alienation

Abstract

Parental Alienation (PA) is a form of emotional abuse that may be present in court cases involving custody disputes. In this context, psychologists may be called to examination and preparation of psychological reports. The reports comprise the processual evidence and can assist the judges in their decision. The objectives of this study were: (1) to check the criteria and PA indicators considered by psychologists in examinations; (2) to investigate the assessment procedures adopted, (3) to assess the adequacy of psychological reports issued by professionals appointed by the judges based on guidelines of the Federal Council of Psychology (FCP); (4) to investigate whether there was agreement between conclusion of the psychological report and the court sentence on PA situation. To this end, a descriptive document analysis was conducted from eight psychological reports, involving ten children, who made up the sentenced processes or in progress with the PA theme. The results indicated that (1) there is no consensus among criteria and AP indicators among professionals; (2) projective interviews and testing procedures were prevalent; (3) none of the eight reports were analyzed according to the FCP requirements on the preparation of documents and (4) judges and psychologists are positioned similarly in four cases, two considering the existence of PA and two considering its absence. We conclude that there is no standard for PA assessment adopted by psychologists and that the problems regarding the suitability of documents suggest the need for further professional training for working in the area.

Parental Alienation; Psychological Report; Expertise Psychological