• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.53-57
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• 2020

This article reviews a wide range of literature on the standards and process of child custody evaluation in the US, and proposes custody evaluation standards appropriate to Korea. Custody evaluation refers to the process of making psychiatric and psychological evaluations of each parent and the child during a custody dispute and presenting to the family court a report of custody evaluation with the aim of safeguarding the best interests of the child. In the past, it was thought that children arethe fathers' possessions or that younger children should be raised by the mother; however, currently, custody rights are evaluated in accordance with the principle of the best interests of the child. The principle is all-encompassing and vague and hence, the court makes increasingly more requests to mental health professionals for custody evaluation. Since the Seoul Family Court introduced the expert consultation system in 2017, the involvement of mental health professionals in child custody decisions has increased in Korea. Custody evaluators should try to be neutral and find the objective facts, keeping in mind that their role is to aid the court in making a custody decision.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.66-73
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• 2020

In a divorced family, child-centered custody evaluation is essential to ensure the child's best interests and healthy adaptation. A mental health professional's role and involvement are required in gaining an in-depth understanding of various environments and dynamics surrounding the child and family. Domestic violence, including child abuse and intimate partner violence (IPV) or parental alienation syndrome (PAS), is often observed in cases of custody evaluation in high-conflict divorced families, sometimes accompanied by allegations. Such cases warrant an extremely careful approach by the evaluator, who needs to be competent in interpreting the familial dynamics based on a reasonable context understanding. Genuine professionalism is a must for a custody evaluator to best help the child and carry out a high-quality custody evaluation process, and evaluators need to be ready for this task through adequate preparation and empowerment. This article is devoted to examining custody evaluation in divorced families in cases of IPV, child abuse, and PAS.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.58-65
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• 2020

As in western countries, divorce rates in South Korea have recently been rising, and family disruption has become one of serious social problems. Parents are able to express their opinions and wishes confidently, but the thoughts and wishes of children, especially infants and young children, tend to be ignored. Children can also experience several emotional and behavioral problems during the process of and after their parents' divorce. When South Korean family courts determine custody arrangements, they typically do not have a systematic strategy and process based on custody evaluation to help children and their parents overcome conflicts and build healthy parent-child relationships after divorce. Furthermore, under the current court system, it is difficult for mental health specialists and child psychiatrists to intervene in familial conflicts as mediators or therapists during the course of divorce proceedings. Acknowledging these limitations, the South Korean family court system implemented a formal program for custody evaluations by child psychiatrists and psychologists in 2017. However, they have faced challenges such as a shortage of experienced specialist and lack of a training system or instruments for evaluation. In this paper, the authors aim to share professional knowledge of and experiences with aspects of the custody evaluation process, such as indications, procedures, methods, psychological tests, resources, and final report writing, to better serve children and their parents undergoing a painful divorce process.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.323-336
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• 2009

There has been a significant increase in the number of divorced families during the past 10 years in Korea. Divorce imposes a great impact on their children as well as divorcees. As many as 1.41 million children under 20 years-old have experienced their parents' divorce in past 10 years. Children are faced with much difficulty in adjustment after the parental divorce. Issues of the research and policy on the divorced family are discussed in this study. For future studies, a longitudinal research model, father-custody and grandparent-custody families, custody parents's gender, a theoretical model for Korean divorced families should be considered. New legislations have been recently enacted to enhance children's well-being, but further efforts such as the involvement of child development specialists in the divorce process should be followed in the pursuit of the best interest of the children.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.59-75
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• 2013

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how divorced mothers had decided to take custody of their children and became single mothers. The experiences of their lives after divorce were also explored. Data were collected from 17 Korean divorced mothers who were divorced between 2004 and 2009, and were raising at least one minor child. The data were analyzed based on the phenomenological data analysis method. Three main themes were identified: (a) reasons for deciding to have physical custody of the children, (b) mothers' experiences of adjustment after divorce, and (c) mothers' need for a policy concerning the well-being of their families. According to the divorced mothers, they decided to have physical custody of the children since they believed raising children was their natural duty of mothers or they were the most appropriate ones to raise the children rather than the fathers. While the mothers were satisfied with their lives after divorce in general, they also experienced difficulties including child care and financial strain. In particular, most mothers experienced work-family conflict related to the lack of reliable child care. When their family lives and work lives collided, the mothers put their children first and chose jobs that helped them take care of their children at the same time. The divorced single mothers hoped that the social safety net for single parents would expand to support their independence. Implications for single-parent policy are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.51-52
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• 2020

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.23-32
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• 2006

Understanding the experience of parents without custody after divorce is important in terms of facilitating their adjustment and positive relationships with their children. Ninety-two noncustodial parents divorced within the previous 5 years completed a structured questionnaire. We examined differences between noncustodial fathers and mothers in terms of the frequency of the contact and the relationship satisfaction with children. In addition, using the regression model, we analyzed the effects of several characteristics of noncustodial parents, including gender, on the frequency of contact as well as the relationship satisfaction with children. The main results of the study are as follows. First, noncustodial fathers and mothers exhibited similar low levels of contact by phone and in-person visits. Second, noncustodial parents with a child older than 8 years old visited the child more frequently, and were more satisfied than noncustodial parents with younger children. Third, the level of desire to gain the child custody had a significant effect on the frequency of contact and the satisfaction of the relationship between the noncustodial parents and their children. Fourth, noncustodial parents with more positive feeling about their former spouse contacted more frequently with the children. Fifth, compared with noncustodial fathers, noncustodial mothers demonstrated a higher relationship satisfaction with their children.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.194-200
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• 1994

When children exhibit unusually intense or persistent sexual interests or behavior, this is an indication that they have been exposed to more than the expectable amount of sexual experience, Although sexualized behavior and/or statement is a symptom of sexual abuse, it is not necessarily an indication of sexual abuse. The possibility of false allegation needs to be considered, particularly if allegations are coming from the parent rather than a child, if parents are engaged in dispute over custody or visitation, and/or if the child is a preschooler. False allegations may arise in other situations as well, such as the misinterpretation of a child's statement or behavior by relative or caretakers. And children may make false statement in psychiatric evaluations. A case of false allegation of sexual abuse made by mentally retarded 10 year-old girl who has been located in an institute is presented. During her evaluation process, it was clinician's diagnostic impression that she had no been sexually abused but sexually stimulated in some way, and most of what she said was a fantasy lie. Its pathological mechanism is discussed in terms of pseudologia fantastica along with the review of literatures.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.43-53
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• 2010

This study aimed to compare fear and prevention behaviors on accidents between mothers and teachers in family childcare centers. The participants were 117 mothers whose children were 0~2 year-olds and 121 teachers. Based on Hendrickson(2008) and Reichert & Henricks(1996), the scale was developed by the researcher, and it was composed of fear and prevention behaviors on accident. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and $x^2$ analysis. Results showed that mothers feared fall accidents and step-on-accidents while teachers feared suffocation accidents and liability for injury medical fee. Also, mothers did more prevention behaviors on use of car seats than teachers, whereas teachers did more behaviors on walk safety, custody of drugs and dangerous articles, and food safety.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 1992

The purpose of this study was to undrstand the emotional and behavioral sequela in the abused child caused by phygical abuse. To achieve the purpose. the emotional and behavioral differences between not or less abused children group and severely abused children group were compared in this study. The subjects in this study were 61 male children who were selected among children under custody at 4 child-welfare institutions in Seoul. A violence scale in CTS(Conflict Tactics Scale) developed by Straus(1979) was modified and used as a research tool to measure the children's physical abuse. The Korean text of Child Behavior Checklist(CBCL) was also used to measure the emotional and behavioral problems of abused children. The results of this study were as follows : 1) The total scores of behavioral problems in physically abused children were significantly higher than those in control group. 2) The comparison of behavioral problems has shown significant differences between two groups in social withrawal. somatic symptom, emotional disturbance, obsessive-depressive behavior, hyperactivity and psychotic-sexual factors. However. there were no differences in aggressive and delinquent factors. The above results presents us the profile of children's emotional and behavioral problems caused by physical abuse, and can be used as a framework for the treatment protection and preservation of abused children in the course of social work practice.