assessment instruments should be used. Research
examining the psychometric properties of this system
is currently lacking. The UCCES recommends that
examiners provide a specific custody recommendation
to the court, although the ethicality of addressing this
“ultimate issue” is a matter of debate in the field.Description
Harry Munsinger and Kevin Karlson designed the
UCCES to standardize the processes of conducting cus-
tody evaluations and providing recommendations to the
courts. State laws do not specify what information
should be gathered and considered during custody eval-
uations, and the authors argue that this lack of speci-
ficity has led to custody examiners performing
dissimilar assessments and providing widely different
information to the courts. They suggest that the courts
are better served by a standardized process that care-
fully balances information gathered from parents,
children, and collateral sources. Such evaluations in
principle should be more predictable and equable, and
the courts should be better able to compare recommen-
dations from different experts.
Materials in the UCCES packet consist of a set of
25 forms that the examiner uses sequentially to struc-
ture the evaluation. Forms begin with client referral,
agreement to conduct the assessment, consent to eval-
uate minors, and parent personal history question-
naires. Some forms are intended to structure the parent
interviews, child interviews, behavioral observations,
home observations, and collateral interviews. Other
forms seek to structure the examiner’s analysis of the
validity of individuals’ responses during the evalua-
tion, the suitability of joint custody, and the possibility
of abuse or neglect. A form is even provided for track-
ing all communications relating to the case.
The examiner is encouraged to follow a strict set of
procedures, beginning with the initial communications
with the attorneys and parents. The actual evaluative
process begins with gathering historical information
from the parents and any other primary caretakers (e.g.,
grandparents) and the children. The parents are inter-
viewed together during an initial session. The examiner
then interviews each parent and child alone over a
series of days. The UCCES manual offers various rec-
ommendations for performing the evaluation in as con-
sistent and unbiased manner as possible. For example,
it strongly recommends alternating the order of parental
meetings or interviews at each session to avoid the sug-
gestion of bias.Although a strict set of procedures is recom-
mended, the UCCES does not constrain the type or
number of assessment instruments administered to
children or parents beyond recommending that the
standard interview forms should be completed. For
example, the use of various objective and projective
tests that might inform one’s understanding of the
closeness of the children to each parent is encouraged.
When the children are interviewed alone, the UCCES
manual specifically recommends administration of the
Kinetic Family Drawing test, a projective device
scored by measuring the distance between the persons
in the drawing.
In addition to the interviews, the UCCES recom-
mends making behavioral observations of parent-child
interactions with each parent. The manual does not
indicate the types of behaviors or interactions that the
examiner should track nor does it provide a specific
coding or rating system. Professional surveys have
suggested that examiners rarely make use of structured
rating systems, nor have any custody-specific methods
been developed. Home visits are also recommended to
verify that the home situation has been described accu-
rately by the parents (e.g., the environment is safe and
clean). Finally, the examiner also may perform “collat-
eral interviews” to gather substantiating information
from friends, neighbors, babysitters, and/or other indi-
viduals who interact with the family.
After performing the standard information gather-
ing, the examiner reviews the forms and determines a
custody recommendation based on the principle of
“goodness of fit.” The UCCES manual provides a very
general operationalization of this legal principle by
directing the examiner to consider if the parent lov-
ingly supports healthy individuation and development
of the child, encourages and is involved in the child’s
interests and academics, and has basic competencies
with regard to child care. More detailed operational-
izations of the goodness of fit standard are referenced
in the manual. Finally, a written report is prepared and
sent to the court and both attorneys. The authors rec-
ommend that the examiner make a specific recom-
mendation of custody for the family.Psychometric Properties
No information concerning psychometric properties
is provided in the UCCES manual. This is perhaps not
surprising because the authors consider the UCCES
to be a flexible, evaluative process rather than a spe-
cific psychological instrument. Nevertheless, whetherUniform Child Custody Evaluation System (UCCES)——— 823U-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:44 PM Page 823