In recent years, mental health professionals have had an increasingly important role in the assessment and resolution of disputed child custody cases. There currently exist little empirical data to guide the professional in this process. In this study the activities, beliefs, and experiences of professionals were investigated in three primary areas: custody evaluation procedures, custodial decision making in joint and single-parent custody, and custodial recommendations. An extensive questionnaire was developed and mailed to professionals experienced in child custody evaluations. Results of the survey are presented, and implications for future research are discussed. WILLIAM G. KEILIN, MS, is currently a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Colorado State University. His current research interests include the areas of child custody and psychological responses to the threat of nuclear war. LARRY J. BLOOM, PhD, received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Kansas in 1975. He is currently Professor of Psychology at Colorado State University and engaged in private practice. His clinical and research interests are in the areas of psychotherapy outcome, behavioral medicine, and child custody.

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During a 3-week period, seven subjects were treated with Anxiety Management Training (AMT) while seven subjects served as a wait-list control. Pattern A behaviors, measured by the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS), self-report of anxiety, as measured by the Spielberger state (STAI-S) and trait (STAI-T) anxiety inventories, and indices of blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides were obtained before and after treatment. Results indicate that treated subjects compared to controls showed significant reductions in the Hard-Driving component of pattern A behavior, showed lower posttest STAI-A and StAI-T scores, but failed to evidence a statistically significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure or cholesterol and triglyceride levels. The implications of these data to theoretical and practical conceptualizations of stress management are discussed.

The present experiment explored the utility of finger pulse volume (FPV) as a measure of anxiety. Subjects were exposed to either a threatening or nonthreatening situation, and indices of physiological arousal (pulse rate (PR) and FPV) and self‐report of anxiety (Affect Adjective Checklist (AACL)) were collected. Results indicated that FPV was responsive to changes in experimentally induced anxiety and significantly correlated with PR and AACL, although the strength of these relationships was not substantial. Relevance for psychophysiological theory and the clinical observation of anxiety is discussed.