In the Name of the Child: A Developmental Approach to Understanding and Helping Children of Conflicted and Violent Divorce / Edition 2

by Janet Johnston PhD, Vivienne Roseby PhD, Kathryn Kuehnle PhD

Overview

Johnston, Roseby, and Kuehnle take you behind the child's eyes, into their heads...[they] flesh out the familial context, and bring it all back into the larger social world....When you are done reading, you know who these families are, what the children need, and — as a clinician — how you can help them.

—Marsha Kline Pruett, PhD, MSL
Maconda Brown O'Connor Professor
Smith College School for Social Work

This book addresses problems that arise for children of conflicted and violent divorceÖ.It provides a good base for beginning to treat children in this situation as well as good information for understanding the legal and community services available."

—Doody's

The fully updated and revised edition of In the Name of the Child examines both the immediate and long-term effects of high-conflict divorce on children. By combining three decades of research with clinical experience, the authors trace the developmental problems affecting very young children through adolescence and adulthood, paying special attention to the impact of family violence and the dynamics of parental alienation.

The authors present clinical interventions that have proven to be most effective in their own clinical work with families. With a new emphasis on the need for prevention and early intervention, this edition examines how defensive strategies and symptoms of distress in children can consolidate into immutable, long-standing psychopathology in their adult lives. This book contains the policies and procedures that can preempt these high-conflict outcomes in divorcing families.

Key Features:

• Contains a new chapter examining the effects of violent divorce on a sample of young adults, tracking their developmental changes from adolescence through adulthood
• Discusses the developmental threats to both boys and girls of different ages and stages, along with therapeutic interventions and guidelines for parenting plans
• Proposes principles and criteria for decision-making about custody, visitation, and parenting plans based on individual assessment of the developing child within his or her family

Mental health professionals, educators, family lawyers, judges, and court administrators will find this book to be an essential read, with all the knowledge and insight needed to understand the short- and long-term effects of violent divorce on children."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826111272
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/06/2009
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	486
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Janet R. Johnston, PhD, is a sociologist. For three decades she has specialized in research and clinical interventions with high conflict and violent divorcing families, parental alienation and family abduction of children at the Judith Wallerstein Center for the Family in Transition. As professor in justice studies at San Jose State University for the past decade, her focus has been on social policies in family and juvenile courts within the context of their communities.

Vivienne Roseby, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice and consulting psychologist to Families First Residential Treatment Center in Davis, California where she has pioneered a developmental treatment model for children and adolescents with histories of acute and chronic trauma.

Kathryn Kuehnle, PhD, is a widely recognized expert in the assessment and treatment of sexually abused children. She has an independent practice in Tampa, Florida.

Read an Excerpt

chapter

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
PART 1. THE PROBLEM AND THE CHALLENGE
1. The Family Crucible of High-Conflict and Violent Divorce
2. The Prism and Prison of the Child
PART II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN HIGH-CONFLICT FAMILIES
3. Infants and Toddlers: Problems in Separation-Individuation
4. Preschoolers: Separation, Gender, and Sexualized Anxiety
5. School-Age Children: the Struggle to Feel Lovable, Good, and Competent
6. Adolescents: Toward Resolution or Stalemate
7. Young Adults: Struggling with the Legacy
PART III. INTERVENTIONS ON BEHALF OF CHILDREN IN HIGH-CONFLICT AND VIOLENT DIVORCE
8. Building Multidisciplinary Partnerships between the Family Court and Community
9. Co-Parenting Counseling and Parenting Coordination
10. Treatment of Children in Conflicted and Violent Families
PART IV. SPECIAL ISSUES IN DIFFICULT CUSTODY-DISPUTING FAMILIES
11. Domestic Violence: Differential Assessment and Parenting Plans
12. Parental Abduction: Risk Factors and Preventive Interventions
13. Parental Alignments and Alienation: Differential Assessment and Therapeutic Intervention
14. Child Sexual Abuse Allegations in Custody Disputes
Appendix
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The risk of long lasting emotional damage that parents who divorce with high conflict and violence expose their children is one of the principal problems that faces family courts today. In this book, three of the very best social scientist researchers and clinicians in the field bring together the available research and mental health and legal practices that can help the legal system address the problem. Their call for individualized, sensitive treatment for the children of high conflict and violent divorce by courts and professionals and multi disciplinary partnerships between family courts and community resources makes this book required reading for family court judges, divorce lawyers, legislators and concerned citizens. It is a major contribution to helping family courts protect the best interests of these children at risk."

--Andrew Schepard

Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Children,

Families and the Law, Hofstra University School

"A towering work of scholarship that stands alone in its wisdom and compassion for the suffering of children and their parents who are locked into seemingly unending divorce related bitter conflict with each other. Based on many years of research and painstaking reflection, the authors, who bring outstanding professional reputations to the task, offer new ways of understanding these tormented families along with new paradigms for intervention. Their proposals are firmly anchored in sophisticated clinical knowledge. They are also practicable, having been developed over many years of successful programs which have drawn on the cooperative efforts of the courts, the legal profession, and mental health practitioners."

--Judith Wallerstein, PhD

Author, What About the Kids? Raising Your Children Before , During and After Divorce

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Jada Johnson, MD (Rush University Medical Center)
Description: This book addresses problems that arise for children of conflicted and violent divorce. It suggests a multidisciplinary intervention approach to limiting the negative psychological impact these divorces can have on children.
Purpose: The purpose is to understand a child's experience of conflicted and violent divorce and how it may lead to psychopathology and to emphasize the importance of early intervention to limit the extent of the psychopathology. On some level these objectives are met, but there is a considerable amount of time dedicated to the intrapsychic workings of the parents.
Audience: According to the authors, this book is written for a multidisciplinary audience of family law professionals (judges, family lawyers, mediators, child custody evaluators) and mental health practitioners. However, it appears geared primarily to mental health workers who would understand the complex psychodynamic formulations of behavior and pathology that it discusses. Although the book is an easy read, it requires a knowledge base in psychodynamic theory to fully understand. The author has 30 years of experience in working with this specialized group of children.
Features: The book covers the psychological dynamics for the parents as well as the child who is in the middle of a conflicted/violent divorce. Explicitly it describes how children may manage the conflict by use of various defenses based on their corresponding developmental level. I appreciate how this book uses case examples to explore the complicated dynamic processes. The book also covers special issues that may arise (i.e. parental abduction, sexual abuse allegations). Useful appendixes provide guidelines for assessment of these families and research data about conflicted and violent divorce.
Assessment: This is a very useful book, especially the elements aimed at understanding the psychodynamic processes of parents and children involved in a conflicted or violent divorce. It provides a good base for beginning to treat children in this situation as well as good information for understanding the legal and community services available. This comprehensive book has increased my awareness of the issues involved in this area.

Doody's Review Service

Reviewer:Jada Johnson, MD(Rush University Medical Center)
Description:This book addresses problems that arise for children of conflicted and violent divorce. It suggests a multidisciplinary intervention approach to limiting the negative psychological impact these divorces can have on children.
Purpose:The purpose is to understand a child's experience of conflicted and violent divorce and how it may lead to psychopathology and to emphasize the importance of early intervention to limit the extent of the psychopathology. On some level these objectives are met, but there is a considerable amount of time dedicated to the intrapsychic workings of the parents.
Audience:According to the authors, this book is written for a multidisciplinary audience of family law professionals (judges, family lawyers, mediators, child custody evaluators) and mental health practitioners. However, it appears geared primarily to mental health workers who would understand the complex psychodynamic formulations of behavior and pathology that it discusses. Although the book is an easy read, it requires a knowledge base in psychodynamic theory to fully understand. The author has 30 years of experience in working with this specialized group of children.
Features:The book covers the psychological dynamics for the parents as well as the child who is in the middle of a conflicted/violent divorce. Explicitly it describes how children may manage the conflict by use of various defenses based on their corresponding developmental level. I appreciate how this book uses case examples to explore the complicated dynamic processes. The book also covers special issues that may arise (i.e. parental abduction, sexual abuse allegations). Useful appendixes provide guidelines for assessment of these families and research data about conflicted and violent divorce.
Assessment:This is a very useful book, especially the elements aimed at understanding the psychodynamic processes of parents and children involved in a conflicted or violent divorce. It provides a good base for beginning to treat children in this situation as well as good information for understanding the legal and community services available. This comprehensive book has increased my awareness of the issues involved in this area.