Professionals’ Views About Child Interviews for Family Law Assessments[Note 1. We wish to thank the professionals interviewed for this ...]

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Interviews with children form a major part of assessments in contested family law matters. This study provides a qualitative analysis of professionals’ perceptions regarding how children are interviewed for family law purposes and the challenges associated with these interviews. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 15 professionals who had experience in the area of family law and/or interviewing children. Transcripts of these interviews were analyzed using an inductive coding process and key themes identified. The overriding message found was that interviewing children for family law matters is complex and warrants considerable skill and expertise. The findings highlight the importance of recognizing the purpose of each child interview and the appropriate process and strategies to conduct each interview.


Interviewing children for family law matters is intricate and challenging work and warrants considerable skill and expertise.
Two related fundamental principles underlying the overall purpose of a child interview are: (1) ensuring the child is a valued participant in the assessment process and (2) using the interview with a child as an opportunity for the child to provide unique information (both facts and subjective perspectives on issues).
The potential for creating harm through the child interview can be mitigated by use of open‐ended questions and ensuring children are clear about the lack of confidentiality in interviews, how the information will be used, and their rights to participate or not.
The main features of current professional guidelines and guidance publications on child custody evaluations/family law assessments and interviewing children appear to be followed by the professionals in this study. However, professionals still expressed that a broad framework for interviewing children for family law scenarios would be beneficial for practitioners.