Center for Excellence in Family Court Practice

In 2016, AFCC President Marsha Kline Pruett appointed the AFCC Task Force on Guidelines for the Use of Social Science Research in Family Law. The Guidelines were developed following AFCC initiatives that focused on the use of research in family law, including two articles written by AFCC’s Researchers’ Roundtable and the AFCC Think Tank, Closing the Gap: Research, Practice, Policy and Shared Parenting. The Guidelines were developed by an interdisciplinary and international collaboration of AFCC members.  They are written for an interdisciplinary audience and are not intended to define mandatory practice. Rather, they are intended to provide family justice practitioners with guidance, parameters, and boundaries supporting the responsible use of research in family law. The Guidelines were approved by the AFCC Board of Directors in 2018.