These are the factors that most courts in the developed world take into account when dealing with custody cases:
Continuity: The court will investigate which arrangement seems to offer the most stable and permanent arrangement for the child, and also reduces disruption for the family.
Attachments: The parent-child connection will be assessed to recognize and protect the opportunities for the child to maintain continuity with attachment figures, and also to appreciate how these attachments will enter into the ultimate forensic recommendations.
Preference: Judges give more weight to a child’s stated preference regarding custody when the child is older than age of 12 years. When small children state a preference, the evaluator will assess its meaning and context.
Parental alienation: In a custody dispute, a child may appear to be extremely hostile toward one of the parents. The child finds nothing positive in the relationship with that parent and prefers no contact.
The child’s special need: Some children in a custody evaluation may have handicaps in vision or hearing, mental illness, or chronic physical conditions. The evaluator will investigate whether either or both parents are attuned sufficiently to the child’s needs.
Education: Each parent’s educational plans for the child will be assessed for appropriateness of these plans in regard to the child’s educational history and needs.
Gender issues: There is no rigorous scientific support for the notion that boys should be placed with fathers or girls with mothers. The evaluator will focus on each parents sensivity to the child’s needs for appreciate gender role models, as well as the quality of each parent’s relationship with the child.
Sibling relationships: Commonly, siblings in a family undergoing divorce and custody dispute lend emotional support to each other. The evaluator will examine the sibling bonds and the sensivity of each parent to these special relationships. It is rare to recommend separating siblings as a solution to a to a custody dispute, unless the peculiarities of a case warrant this unusual outcome.
Parent’s physical and psychiatric health: The court will check whether either parent suffers from a physical ailment that could directly affect the parent child relationship or interfere with the parent’s ability to care for the child. The issue, however, is not the diagnosis, but the effect of psychiatric impairment on the parent’s ability to parent effectively, care for the child, and maintain an empathic relationship with the child.
Parent’s work schedule: How each parent views his or her work and how it interferes with time spent with the child will be focused upon. The appropriateness of childcare plans, and their effect on the child should also be considered.
Parent’s finances: Although the court may separate the financial details of the divorce settlements from the custody case, but each parent’s finances and earnings [potential] are assessed.
Styles of parenting and discipline: The focus will be on the “goodness of fit” between each parenting style and the child. At times, parenting style is obvious from joint parent-child interviews and when it is not, the evaluator will explore this area. How each parent views the child’s relationship with the other parent is also assessed. The evaluator will enquire about each parent’s philosophy toward discipline. It is usual for litigating parents to exaggerate the harshness or permissiveness of each others manner of child rearing.
Social support systems: The presence or absence of supports for the child that might be in place depending upon the custodial recommendation is taken into account. For example, grandparents, other relatives, or friends might have a bigger role in the child’s life at one location than the other. In addition, if a parent has a deficit or disability, can that parent make use of supports that would enhance his or her relationship with the child?
Religion: Parental conflict frequently centers on which religious background, if any, will be given to the child. The child may be taught one form of worship by the mother and another one by the father. Parents need to be warned of the harm that can come from ongoing parental conflict over this issue.
The evaluator will conduct a psychiatric evaluation of each child, with diagnoses when approtiate. Children as young as three years usually can be interviewed alone if they can separate from the parent. Siblings are usually seen together at the outset, to allow them to be supportive to each other. Each child is usually seen twice, since he or she should be brought to one appointment by the mother and another by the father.