Meet the children when parents separate. The involvement of children in the Child Custody Evaluation

The paper illustrates a clinical process to realize Child Custody Evaluation in separation and divorce. It is based on a relational conception of parenthood, understood as a "triangular function" which is determined in the interrelation between the two parents, the child and their relational systems of origin. In this perspective, the main criterion of evaluation of the parental adequacy considers not only the "caregiving competence" of each parent, but fo- cuses attention on the ability and willingness of each parent to facilitate children’s symbolic access whole relational context and the ability both to maintain and consolidate the "parental units" with regard to the child. From these theoretical assumptions has been developed, within a quasi-experimental logic, an operational standard protocol about the intervention procedures, techniques and tools.This specific way of work is also illustrated through the presentation of a case study that highlights how it is particularly suited to promote the children’s listening within the judicial proceedings.

Keywords: Separation and divorce, child custody evaluation, children’s listening.

Marialuisa Gennari, Giancarla Tamanza, Incontrare i figli quando i genitori si separano. Il coinvolgimento dei figli nella valutazione psicogiuridica dell’idoneità genitoriale in "INTERAZIONI" 2/2012, pp 55-72, DOI: 10.3280/INT2012-002006