Related Experiment Videos
Court-ordered assessment: impact of maternal noncompliance in child maltreatment cases
1Family Court Clinic, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Parental noncompliance to court orders is associated with several factors that jeopardize safe and stable child care. We advanced three hypotheses: (1) maternal noncompliance to court-ordered assessment is associated with loss of child custody; (2) noncompliance is related to court clinic custody recommendations; and (3) noncompliance is stable across child protection and court clinic settings. Based on a sample of 56 court-referred child maltreatment cases, all hypotheses were confirmed. Results are discussed in terms of: (a) maternal noncompliance as a marker for high-risk child care; (b) our limited understanding of the phenomenal meaning of noncompliance; and (c) the dearth of empirically derived intervention methods.
Parental noncompliance to court orders is associated with several factors that jeopardize safe and stable child care. We advanced three hypotheses: (1) maternal noncompliance to court-ordered assessment is associated with loss of child custody; (2) noncompliance is related to court clinic custody recommendations; and (3) noncompliance is stable across child protection and court clinic settings. Based on a sample of 56 court-referred child maltreatment cases, all hypotheses were confirmed. Results are discussed in terms of: (a) maternal noncompliance as a marker for high-risk child care; (b) our limited understanding of the phenomenal meaning of noncompliance; and (c) the dearth of empirically derived intervention methods.