A psychological evaluation describes a meeting with a psychologist – often one appointed by the family courts – where the psychologist performs a few tasks to assess the psychological and mental fitness of the parent. These psychological testing tasks can include one-on-one interviews, written personality assessments and questionnaires, a review of mental health records, and interviews with people close to the parent. Psychological testing could impact your child custody case by calling you or your ex-spouse’s parental fitness into question.
The psychological evaluation will be framed by the goal of determining whether or not you are fit to have custody of the child. Although a mental health disorder will not automatically take custody away from one parent, it can become a determining factor in a child custody case. If the psychologist’s evaluation ends in a mental health diagnosis such as depression, paranoia, borderline personality disorder or schizophrenia, a judge will take this into account when determining where a child should spend most of his or her time. If the psychologist or judge believes the parent’s mental health condition could have a negative impact on the child, that parent may lose custodial rights.