PSYCHOMETRIC DIAGNOSIS OF CHILDRENS EMOTI ONAL BONDS - THE PROJECTIVEFAMILY SCENARIO TEST (PFST)

The decision of the family court in custody cases has to take into acc ount the bonds of the child. Expert judgments rely on tests, among oth er approaches. However, these tests were not specifically constructed or validated for custody evaluations. Consequently, informal data coll ection procedures, in part of a semi-projective nature, were used with out employing standards of psychometric tests. As semi-projective proc edures appeared to have advantages, a standardized procedure to assess preferences among parents was constructed. Its psychometric propertie s are considered satisfying as observed in two normal samples and one clinical sample. The main topics for future research are discussed.