A systematic review to investigate whether the current family court process in Scotland, leads to emotionally functional adults in cases of adverse childhood experiences.

Abstract

The purpose of this systematic review is to investigate whether the current family court procedure in Scotland, involving cases of adverse childhood experiences exacerbated by parental abuse or household dysfunction, is likely to contribute, even inadvertently, to a deficit in emotional functionality in adults. Firstly, I will explore the literature on adverse childhood experiences, focussing on aspects such as critical periods of development, responsivity to stress, neural plasticity and the importance of family, to establish the potential effects on children’s social development, educational attainment, behavioural system, physical system and neurological development. Secondly, by exploring emotion regulation and the biological mechanisms that regulate the body’s stress hormone response system, I aim to identify how the association between stress and empathy impact the behavioural and emotional systems, to establish whether reduced empathy development is a potential pathway to future psychotic disorders, particularly, within populations with a history of childhood maltreatment.Finally, I will investigate how the court conducts family contact disputes, maintaining a balance between participation and protection of the child, whilst retaining the equilibrium of these views and the welfare principle.