Family Assessment Semi-Structured Interviews Kit

6 interview forms gather an extensive amount of information from parents and child for use in custody evaluations or psychotherapeutic interventions. They may be purchased as a set of all 6 forms, or each form may be purchased individually, according to need.

The Interview Forms are designed to gather the extensive amount of information about the child and parents considered to be important in custody statutes in the USA and research in mental health. The Manual describes how to integrate the interviews into the framework of the comprehensive custody evaluation.

Contains 8 copies of each of the following 6 Interviews:  

1. Child Access to Parental Strength (CAPS)    
About: Child/Parents—By: Parents  
11 pages
Assesses what strengths each parent can bring to the child, in keeping with the new legal emphasis on need to avoid winner-loser mentality.
Gathers a tremendous amount of information in the following areas: current living/custody arrangement for each child; history of previous marriages; detailed history of the living arrangement and daily routine of the child when the child is in the care of the respondent; relationship of the child to any significant other with whom the parent may be living; the parent’s view of his or her own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of the spouse or ex-spouse; the parent’s knowledge of each child’s developmental history or special needs; how the parent helps with problems, discipline and limit-setting; history of financial problems; emotional problems of anyone involved; if the parents are divorcing, each parent’s perception of what the custody arrangement should be; names and contact information of all others who may have important information to contribute.
The CAPS provides a way to gather, in a very organized manner, a huge amount of interview data. In a custody evaluation, or in any extensive family evaluation, it helps determine at the outset of the evaluation which people must be seen. It helps distinguish between people who will require extensive testing or interviewing or observing, from collateral informants. It helps the evaluator separate those collateral informants who require in-person contact from those who can provide data via phone, letters, or affidavits. The vast amount of information gathered also helps with the selection of tests and tools to be used in the evaluation.  

2. Parent Self-Report Data    
About: Parent—By: Parent  
7 pages
Gathers a great deal of very personal information including: job history; drug and alcohol use; recreational activities; sex abuse history, criminal history; physical and mental health history; parent’s relationships with his or her own parents; parent’s childhood history of being disciplined.  

3. Child Data
About: Child—By: Parent
8 pages
Provides an opportunity for parents to give their perception of their own interactions and those of the other parent with their children in a variety of different circumstances. This provides an ideal way to compare what the parent wants you to believe about his or her parenting to what the children express about each parent.  Based on the parenting literature, four main dimensions of parenting are identified: parental responsiveness, parental positive demandingness, parental negative demandingness, and parental emotion-related coaching. Parental responsiveness, parental emotion-related coaching, and parental positive demandingness are related to children’s higher emotional intelligence, while parental negative demandingness is related to children’s lower emotional intelligence.

In evaluating children with the following interview forms, there is always an awareness of the child’s sense-of-self, and how this is influenced by his or her perception of social rank. A child’s basic sense-of-self is formed by his or her interactions with each of the parents. The sense-of-self formed by interactions with the parents will influence how the child interprets all the many ways he or she will be “evaluated” by his or her friends in real life as well as via social media. Perceived social status is a prime target in neuroscience research: “Human imaging studies have for the first time identified brain circuitry associated with (perceived) social status. Researchers found that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order.” Cited in: NIH/National Institute of Mental Health. “Human Brain Appears ‘Hard-wired’ For Hierarchy.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 April 2008.

4. Child Self-Report
About: Parents—By: Child
8 pages
A gentle yet deeply-probing in-depth series of questions to ask children who may be terribly distressed about changes in his or her family. Much time was taken to design questions that would be revealing, yet carefully avoid adding to any discomfort.
The questions are designed not only to cover the entire range of interactions a child may have with each parent (or live-in companion), but also to help detect those children whose motive is to avoid telling the truth in order to protect, or advocate for, a particular parent.

5. “Would”
About: Parent—By: Child
8 pages
Beyond what might have been obtained from a child in other tests and tools, this questionnaire uses a semi-projective series of questions to elicit further and corroborative data about a child’s perceptions of each parent.

6. Child Sexual Abuse  
By: All—when needed
12 pages
This form offers a list of investigative practices used by highly experienced evaluators throughout the country, and provides a starting point when abuse is suspected.  No single test or interview should ever be used to reach a definitive conclusion about the possibility of abuse. All suspected abuse should be investigated by a governmental agency.

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