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22 UALR L. Rev. 501 (1999-2000)
Qualifications of the Techniques to Be Used by Judges, Attorneys, and Mental Health Professionals Who Deal the Children in High Conflict Divorce Cases

handle is hein.journals/ualr22 and id is 511 raw text is: QUALIFICATIONS OF AND TECHNIQUES TO BE USED BY JUDGES, ATTORNEYS, AND MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS WHO DEAL WITH CHILDREN IN HIGH CONFLICT DIVORCE CASES Barry Bricklin, Ph.D.' Gail Elliot, Ph.D.** I. THE IMPACT ON CHILDREN OF HIGH CONFLICT DIVORCE The world of the high conflict custody disputant is topsy-turvy. Diagnostic tools that are very effective when used with most people are ineffective in this world. Standard therapeutic processes are not only ineffective in this world, but typically become the source of more, rather than fewer problems in the future. While we can find no formal definition of high conflict divorce, most researchers endorse the notion that things are at their worst (I) when post-divorce conflicts last more than two years, (2) when the children become enmeshed in the parents' continued disputes, and (3) when the parents have poor coping strategies.' A. The Empirical Evidence Cooperative co-parenting relationships are achieved by only one fourth of divorcing couples. Another quarter of divorcing couples have acrimonious relationships, and the remaining half experience various levels of conflict in their relationships.' Marital conflict has more negative effects on children's adjustment than has been demonstrated for any other researched variable (i.e., gender, age, parent adjustment, custody disposition). Emery concluded that poorer psychological adjustment is found in children in both intact and divorced families where levels of parent conflict are high.3 A meta-analysis of ninety-two studies found that * Adjunct Associate Professor, The Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology, Widener University; Executive Director, The Professional Academy of Custody Evaluators. ** Head, Child Development and Family Processes, Bricklin Associates; Vice Executive Director, The Professional Academy of Custody Evaluators. 1. See David B. Doolittle & Robin Deutsch, Children and High-Conflict Divorce: Theory, Research and Intervention, in THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF CHILD CUSTODY DECISIONS 425 (Robert M. Galatzer-Levy & Louis Kraus eds., 1999). 2. See ELEANOR E. MACCOBY & ROBERT H. MNOOKIN, DIVIDING THE CHILD: SOCIAL AND LEGAL DILEMMAS OF CUSTODY (1992). 3. See Robert E. Emery, Interparental Conflict and the Children of Discord and

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