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Developmental psychology and family law: A discussion paper
Author(s) -
Richards M. P. M.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1988.tb01091.x
Subject(s) - dyad , psychology , family law , relation (database) , legal psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , judicial opinion , work (physics) , law , database , political science , computer science , mechanical engineering , engineering
The starting point of this paper is developmental psychologists' lack of interest in family law, and the small use that is made of psychological work in judicial decision making about parents and children. The particular concern here is decisions related to children at divorce, the commonest situation where the law is involved with parent‐child relationships. The paper describes previous studies of judicial decision making in relation to children and points to some of their weaknesses. In considering the lack of psychological work on the topic, a number of contributory reasons are discussed. In particular, it is argued that our approach to parent‐child relationships has concentrated on the dyad rather than on the network of family relations which has made it difficult to study changes in family form such as that which follows divorce. It is suggested that both the recent increase in the divorce rate and changing theoretical approaches to parent‐child relationships should increase the attention given by psychologists to legal processes.