Psychiatric genetic essentialism and stigma in child custody proceedings: public views.

ABSTRACT: The introduction of behavioral, including psychiatric, genetic information in American courts has gained traction but raises concerns of undue influence on judicial outcomes. We conducted a vignette-based survey of a nationally representative sample of US adults to assess how evidence about a parent's psychiatric genetic makeup and explicit and implicit stigmatizing beliefs about psychiatric conditions may affect key decisions in child custody proceedings. Psychiatric genetic evidence did not affect public perspectives on custody decisions, but it increased the genetic essentialist understanding of psychiatric conditions (regardless of a diagnosis). Explicit stigma was associated with a preference to deny parents with a (or with an alleged) psychiatric condition joint custody. Our newly cr

SUBMITTER: Sabatello M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8390126 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature