Profiling Mother And Father Reports Of Safety Risks In A Postseparation Cohort

Objective: When separated parents are in dispute, safety risks escalate for both parents and their children. Risk screening in family law services is typically rare or limited to a unidimensional appraisal of domestic violence victimization risk for women. Systematic attention to proximal and contextual patterns has been largely neglected to date. Method: We report findings from a large risk screening project in a statewide organization offering postseparation services. Universal screening occurred at intake with the Family Law Detection of Overall Risk Screen (McIntosh & Ralfs, 2012), a validated 10-domain tool for identification, evaluation, and response to both victimization and perpetration safety risks, and infant and child developmental risk. The cohort comprised 7,994 parents. Patterns of modifiable risk were examined for three risk variables: child safety, parent safety, and risk of perpetrating harm. Results: Varying profiles of risk across the Family Law Detection of Overall Risk Screen scales were evident in predicting each safety variable. The strongest predictors of all three safety variables were endorsement of another safety risk, and parent report that the other parent was not coping. No consistent differences were found in the prediction of mother and father reports of risk. Conclusion: We address the potential clinical utility of the findings and their policy implications.