RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Relitigation after Contested Custody and Visitation Evaluations
JF Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
JO J Am Acad Psychiatry Law
FD American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
SP 323
OP 330
VO 14
IS 4
A1 Ash, Peter
A1 Guyer, Melvin J.
YR 1986
UL http://jaapl.org/content/14/4/323.abstract
AB Relitigation of custody, visitation, and child support during a two-year period was used as a measure of postdivorce adjustment. A sample of highly adversarial families (n = 58) referred for a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation as part of a contested divorce custody or visitation action was compared to control samples of mother custody (n = 43), father custody (n = 30), and joint custody (n = 54) families in which custody was not contested. Nineteen percent of adversarial families evaluated predivorce relitigated custody, a significantly higher rate than control families. Mother custody cases had a higher rate of relitigation over child support than did father or joint custody arrangements. Joint custody controls had approximately the same rate of relitigation of custody as did father custody and mother custody controls. A sample of families referred for evaluation of a postdivorce custody or visitation dispute (n = 46) had a higher rate of relitigation of problems regarding visitation than did a control sample of postdivorce families (n = 36). Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.