Evaluation of Family Relations in Custody Cases%253A Adapting The Structured Assessment Form for Children to Turkish Culture

Abstract

The main goal of the study was to adapt the Structured Child Assessment Tool for Family Relationships (SCARF) developed by Strachan et al. (2010) to Turkish culture and to develop an assessment tool for the evaluators working in custody cases to make a standardized assessment in child interviews. The study involved 130 children between the ages of 4 and 14 who were included in custody cases. For the reliability of the assessment tool, Cronbach%252339%253Bs Alpha coefficients were computed for dimensions and sub-dimensions by age and examined with the test-retest method. For construct validity, Spearman Correlation Analysis was conducted for the correlation between the scores given by the child and the evaluator to the parents. Independent samples t-test was applied to specify whether there was a statistically significant difference between the scores given by children to their parents. In the research, a significant positive relationship was established in the scores given to the mother in both assessment tools for construct validity. In the scores given to the father, a significant relationship was found in all dimensions except Negative Parenting and Co-Parenting (plt%253B0.01). The comparison of the scores given by the child to the parents did not reveal any significant difference between the scores of the mother and father in all dimensions and sub-dimensions (pgt%253B0.05). As a consequence, it was established that the SCARF is a valid, reliable, and appropriate assessment tool for Turkish culture that can be used by the evaluator in child with custody cases