Mmpi-2 and Other Psychological Tests in Family Law

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: Daniel J. Hynan, Ph.D., ABAP

MMPI-2 and Other Psychological Tests in Family law

Daniel J. Hynan, Ph.D., ABAP

Dr. Hynan is a forensic and clinical psychologist, board certified in assessment psychology, who has conducted hundreds of evaluations of child custody and parenting time since the early 1990s. His second book, Parenting Plans: Meeting the Challenges with Facts and Analysis, has very recently been published by the ABA.

Both because of my extensive work with children and families of divorce, and the fact that I have published research on multiple psychological tests specific to child custody litigants, I am highly familiar with both the strengths and limitations of relevant psychological testing. Legal professionals have raised questions about the use of such tests in family law cases. Also, some psychologists have criticized the use of testing in court-ordered evaluations of parenting time and custody.

In this article, I first focus on the MMPI-2 because it is the most used psychological test and therefore the target of many criticisms. The MMPI-2 is a measure of adult emotional and personality functioning. It has multiple scales that assess a wide range of functioning, and scales vary in terms of their research support and usefulness. A major question raised by attorneys and judges pertains to what relevance the MMPI-2 has to parent-child relationships and the best interest of the child.

To obtain the right answers, we need to look at what the evidence is and what the law says about the best interest of the child. Good quality research provides the best source of facts about what influences children of separation and divorce. In general, children of divorce are about twice as likely to experience significant problems in life adjustment as compared to those from intact families. A number of factors have been found to contribute to the generally worse functioning in children of divorce, and one of them is parental psychological problems that interfere with parenting. Also, a recent review of 60 years of research on parenting reported that psychological dysfunction in parents is one of the main causes of parenting deficits, especially when combined with marital conflict - they often occur together.

Many state statutes regarding the best interest ofthe child rely, at least in part, on the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, which identifies relevant factors for consideration. One of those factors is the mental and physical health of all relevant individuals. California Family Code section 3020(a) states, "the health, safety, and welfare of children shall be the court's primary concern in determining the best interest of children."

Therefore, the MMPI-2, which is aimed at shedding light on an individual's mental health, is relevant to attempts to establish what is in the child's best interest. But, why don't evaluators just rely on other information, such as from interviews...