Child Custody

Abstract

Abstract The meaning of the term families is changing. Divorce remains a possible significant psychosocial event for millions of American children. Even though divorce outcomes for children are complex, we know some of what can be done to predict negative and positive outcomes. Although the applied definition of the best interests of the child (BIC) remains unclear across the United States, there are numerous, significant contextual factors that a parenting plan and timesharing evaluator can address that will likely be helpful to the family court. For good reasons, the terms child custody and custody evaluations are being replaced by parenting plan and timesharing evaluations . Family law courts, practitioners, and family law forensic evaluators are urged to seek an applied consensus on BIC parenting plan and timesharing recommendations that are forensically sound (i.e., built on the relevant scientific literature) and derived from a psychological BIC analysis.