RUI: Judicial Decision-Making: The Impact of Procedural and Distributive Justice on Families in Child-Custody Litigation

Chapman University, Orange CA

Investigators

Abstract

This research will investigate whether the nature and fairness of court procedures matter to families who are in child custody litigation. Variation in the quality of judicial decision-making will be examined to determine whether it affects the adjustment of families after child custody litigation. While the earlier research explored the link between parents' subjective experience of procedural and distributive justice and family outcomes, the current goal is to objectively assess the quality of judicial decision-making in child-custody litigation and to investigate its impact on family outcomes. To accomplish this, the transcripts of study participants' court hearings/trials will be obtained and their contents analyzed and linked to the already existing outcome data. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity lies in its potential to establish a first, direct link between objective ratings of judicial decision-making, perceptions of procedural and distributive justice variables, and family adjustment. Findings that families are influenced in their adjustment by the actual quality of judicial decision-making could have far-reaching implications for the work of research psychologists and that of health and legal professionals.