Daniel J HynanDaniel J. Hynan, PhD, ABAP, is a clinical and forensic psychologist in independent practice. For decades, he has had a specialty in working with children and families of divorce. He has extensive experience conducting evaluations of parenting time, dcision making, child custody, visitation, relocation, and individual functioning relevant to parenting. He also carries out work product reviews and trial consultations.
Soon after he began to specialize in work with children of divorce in the early 1990s, he recognized the need to increase the scientific foundations of evaluations and integrate such knowledge with professional practice principles. Consequently, he wrote the first peer-reviewed journal article on interviewing children in custody evaluations.
Not long afterward, he wrote the first peer-reviewed journal article on observing parent-child interactions within the context of such evaluations. Also, he wrote the first such journal article on child physical health and safety in custody evaluations. As an outgrowth of Dr. Hynan's combined focus on professional practice and scientific knowledge, he identified that a psychological test used by a significant proportion of custody evaluators had a gender bias. He published an article in a prominent journal describing that gender bias and how it could have a very negative impact on women undergoing custody evaluations. Afterward, the test publisher changed aspects of the test construction and eliminated the gender bias.
Dr. Hynan's work has focused on advancing the field in other ways, also. For example, his article on others' research regarding overnight visits for young children helped to shed light on the importance of prior patterns of parent-child and interparental relationships. Read More Read Less