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Biomedical subjects

M J Guyer

Publications and source records attributed to M J Guyer.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1993

Clinical expertise and the assessment of child sexual abuse.

OBJECTIVE: Mental health specialists (N = 48) were surveyed as to (1) their estimates of the likelihood that a 3-year-old child had been sexually molested (as alleged by her mother in the context of a child custody dispute) by her father, and (2) their recommendations, given their estimates, as to child visitation/custody. METHOD: Specialists heard a detailed presentation of the court-appointed clinician's findings in this case, which included parent interviews and videotaped child-parent interaction sequences. RESULTS: The array of estimated likelihoods was extreme despite that all the clinicians heard the same case. Recommendations to the court strongly tended toward restriction of child-father contact, even when estimates of the likelihood of abuse were low. CONCLUSIONS: Courts should be highly cautious in relying on clinical experts in child custody cases entailing allegations of child sexual abuse. Practitioners should be candid with courts concerning the absence of diagnostic precision in such cases.

Child Abuse, Sexual↗
PubMed1993

The biases of child sexual abuse experts: believing is seeing.

Experts in clinical evaluations of child sexual abuse were studied using a paradigm that requested them to estimate the likelihood of a 3-year-old child having been sexually molested by her father, as alleged by her mother, when she was two years old. All of the experts claimed special qualifications and experience in the field of diagnosing and treating child sexual abuse victims. Expert-respondents provided two estimates of the likelihood that the child had been molested, the first following a detailed presentation of the clinical case by the actual evaluator of the child (the presentation included opportunities to ask questions ad libitum beyond the presentation material), the second following an extensive discussion of the clinical material with other child experts present. The range of estimated likelihoods that the child had been molested was extreme among the expert respondents. The clinical conference format that was used seemed to provide the experts with no apparent means for eliminating or reducing differences in their clinical opinions. Recommendations concerning how the supervising court should regulate further child-father contacts were similarly varied. The implications of these findings for judicial acceptance of expert testimony in cases of alleged child sexual abuse are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Biased reporting by parents undergoing child custody evaluations.

This study tested the hypothesis that a parent undergoing a child custody evaluation will bias his or her report of the children's symptoms in a direction that supports the parent's aim in the litigation. Parents in 196 court-ordered child custody evaluations rated their children using the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist. Additional families undergoing evaluations of visitation disputes (N = 34) and custody/visitation disputes complicated by sexual abuse allegations (N = 15) were used as comparison groups to test alternative explanations of the findings. Results were strongly supportive of the hypothesis that parental bias was present and quantifiable.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Child psychiatry and legal liability: implications of recent case law.

This paper discusses some recent developments in the law which affect the practice of child psychiatry. New areas of professional liability are reviewed including the legal responsibility of the psychiatrist for "negligent" evaluations. Also discussed is the impact of child abuse legislation upon the standard of care in child psychiatry. The increasingly important role of psychiatrists in the legal system is viewed as a trend which will place the profession at greater risk of civil liability in the future. The need for generally accepted guidelines for conducting specialized evaluations is emphasized.

Child↗
PubMed1990

Civil litigation and the child psychiatrist.

This paper reviews the legal principles involved in tort litigation and covers the evolution of case law regarding recovery of damages for psychic trauma. Concepts of zone of danger, foreseeability, and proximate cause are discussed. Issues for both plaintiff and expert witness are discussed. Case examples are provided, and recommendations are made regarding the child psychiatrist's involvement in these cases.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Relitigation after contested custody and visitation evaluations.

Relitigation of custody, visitation, and child support during a two-year period was used as a measure of postdivorce adjustment. A sample of highly adversarial families (n = 58) referred for a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation as part of a contested divorce custody or visitation action was compared to control samples of mother custody (n = 43), father custody (n = 30), and joint custody (n = 54) families in which custody was not contested. Nineteen percent of adversarial families evaluated predivorce relitigated custody, a significantly higher rate than control families. Mother custody cases had a higher rate of relitigation over child support than did father or joint custody arrangements. Joint custody controls had approximately the same rate of relitigation of custody as did father custody and mother custody controls. A sample of families referred for evaluation of a postdivorce custody or visitation dispute (n = 46) had a higher rate of relitigation of problems regarding visitation than did a control sample of postdivorce families (n = 36). Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

The consciously rejected child: legal and social issues.

With increasing frequency, we are observing the phenomenon of the parentally abandoned or rejected child. This can in large measure be attributed to several social/historical developments in American society (Crandall and Grossberg, 1978). Important factors contributing to the phenomenon include the much publicized "breakdown" of traditional family structures; increasing divorce rates; the urbanization of the American population, which creates a cloak of social anonymity; and the establishment of a state/federal welfare bureaucracy, which in part supplants the caretaking functions traditionally carried out by parents. Children who become the victims of parental abandonment find themselves in circumstances in which they come to the attention of an remain, at least for a time, the responsiblity of the legal system and the mental health professions. The interaction of these two institutions, with their overlapping obligations of responsibility toward protecting children, often creates its own problems. Problems arise in part from the somewhat different "interests" of children whom the legal and mental health professions seek to protect and in part from a lack of mutual understanding and knowledge concerning the respective goals, duties, and professional obligations of the two professions. By becoming familiar with the complexity of legal issues which surround the topic of intrafamily relationships in general and parental rights in particular, the psychiatric practitioner can anticipate certain problems which might occur during the course of treatment and can in some instances specify conditions or introduce safeguards in order to minimize the impact of legal intrusions upon the treatment program. The following discussion is designed to help the practitioner to achieve these goals.

Child↗