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Standards of practice for parenting plan evaluations continue to evolve, informed by advances in research and the development of innovative, evidence‐based approaches to assessment and intervention. Parenting plan evaluators are asked to inform the court, parents, and other professionals on how to address the complex needs of increasingly diverse families amid reorganization, high conflict, and crisis. How can we attract and properly train new mental health professionals to do important work in an increasingly strained adversarial system? How can evaluators keep up with these advances over the course of their careers? How can they deepen and refine their skills to work with a diverse array of individuals, family constellations and an enormous range of family circumstances? And how can evaluators care for their own well‐being and their colleagues? In this article, the authors describe a multi‐dimensional approach to training both new and experienced custody evaluators that includes imparting baseline knowledge on how to conduct quality parenting plan evaluations as a starting point. We discuss a variety of modalities and approaches that can enable evaluators to deepen and expand their skills over the years, contribute to the diverse community of family law professionals, and manage the exceptional demands of working in this field. Key points for the family court community: The practice of conducting child custody evaluations (CCEs), also known as parenting plan evaluations (PPEs), is a specialty area of forensic psychology practice that requires tremendous breadth and depth of knowledge regarding psychological principles, legal policies, and ever‐changing professional guidelines.At the same time, professionals in the field are being strained by the increasingly adversarial nature of not only conducting evaluations, but work product review, litigation, and grievance processes. As such, professionals are seemingly wary of beginning or continuing to serve as evaluators.There is a tremendous need to recruit, train, and retain new evaluators who will feel prepared and supported to practice in this challenging field given the aging demographics of the current profession, as well as the increasingly diverse demographics of the families being served.Current and future training programs are encouraged to address not only foundational areas of knowledge that are essential to conducting PPEs, but a greater understanding of ways to manage the emotional stress, risk management issues, and professional burnout for new and current evaluators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic performance in preschool and early elementary grades has long been linked with child attention problems. There is empirical and theoretical support that this co-occurrence is attributable to longitudinal relations between attention and reading problems. However, the literature to date—coming primarily from psychology disciplines—has insufficiently explored the possibility that the relationship between attention problems and reading performance affects students differentially. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, this inquiry extends the current literature by examining whether initial scores and rates of change in the relationship between attention problems and later reading performance vary by child's race, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES). Findings support the claim that attention and reading develop in a mutual process and reveal a complicated pattern of social and individual predictors of attention reading growth over time. Social work researchers can reframe and reinvestigate evidence derived from a psychological framing of the dual developmental processes of reading and attention within a broader understanding of the nested nature of child development within structures of oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic identity has been linked to a number of healthy psychological outcomes for African American adolescents. The levels of conflict and cohesion in the family environment have also been found to be predictive of adolescent mental health. This study examined whether the ethnic identity and levels of conflict and cohesion in the family environments were related to adolescents' psychological adjustment. Participants included 61 African American adolescents, ages 10-14 years old, and their parents. Hierarchical regression models were used to determine the cumulative effects of ethnic identity and family functioning on adolescent mental health, specifically adolescent levels of depression, self-esteem, and interpersonal functioning. Results indicated that having a positive ethnic identity and a cohesive family environment were most strongly associated with psychological adjustment. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of family interventions.

A model linking children's perceptions of adults' gender stereotypes about mathematics and science ability, children's stereotypes, and children's perceptions of their own mathematics and science competence was tested in 302 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. When boys believed that adults hold more traditional stereotypes, they tended to hold corresponding beliefs that girls are relatively less capable or that boys are more capable in mathematics and science. These group competence ratings, in turn, were related to self-perceptions of ability for sixth- and eighth-grade boys. In contrast, most paths were nonsignificant for girls. The results provided support for both social status theory and experiential theory. We discuss implications regarding the influence of stereotypes on motivation and identity development. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)

Racial socialization was examined as a protective factor that might buffer African American youth from the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination. Two types of racial socialization were examined: messages about race pride and preparation for bias. One hundred twenty-eight eighth-grade African American students participated in the study. As anticipated, both types of socialization moderated the relationship between discrimination and self-esteem. The negative relationship between perceived discrimination and self-esteem was mitigated for youth who reported more messages about race pride and a moderate amount of preparation for bias from their parents. In contrast, low race pride socialization and both high and low preparation for bias were associated with a negative relationship between perceived discrimination and self-esteem. (Contains 3 tables.)

The 2022 Guidelines for Parenting Plan Evaluations in Family Law Cases were developed taking into account membership feedback which identified guidance around issues of Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) as a high priority. The current Guidelines have integrated issues of diversity in many areas of the document, by adding a section on guiding principles and values, expanding and clarifying evaluator education and training, and embedding cultural and diversity considerations in many sections of the document. The Guidelines do not provide more direct instruction or education on specific topics or aspects of culture and diversity. Key points for the family court community: The AFCC community recognizes the importance of understanding and including issues of diversity and culture in Parenting Plan Evaluations.The Guidelines have adopted an integrated approach to emphasizing DE&I considerations in key areas of the Parenting Plan Evaluation process.The Guidelines do not offer a "how to" approach, which places the responsibility on the forensic evaluator to seek out opportunities, experiences, and knowledge that will further their cultural competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examinations of depressive symptoms of prenatal care patients, in the context of the women's experiences of intimate partner violence, revealed that victims of psychological aggression in the year before pregnancy were not at high risk for depression, though it was more influential on the women's depression levels during pregnancy. Women also experiencing physical assault or sexual coercion by their intimate partners before or during pregnancy displayed higher depressive symptoms than non-victims.

Emotional availability (EA) was investigated among low-income mothers enrolled in substance-abuse treatment and their young infants (n = 21) compared with a demographically matched group of mother–infant pairs who, by self-report, were not at risk for substance abuse (n = 27). The mother–infant dyads in the treatment group generally demonstrated poorer EA functioning than those in the comparison group, but few differences between the groups on individual dimensions of EA were significant. This finding was notable considering that mothers in treatment reported significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms and psychological stress. Treatment effects may have buffered the negative impact of depression and psychological stress on mothers' EA scores. The clinical implications of the findings are discussed as they relate to substance-abuse-treatment services for pregnant and parenting women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]