Children’s Participation in Legal Proceedings: Stress, Coping, and Consequences

Abstract

Participating in legal proceedings can be highly distressing and potentially detrimental to children’s well-being, both immediately and over time. In this review, we discuss how children cope with such participation. We focus primarily on children’s experiences and coping when they witnessed or endured crimes and are subsequently involved in criminal or dependency cases, though when possible we include evidence of children’s coping when involved in divorce cases. In the first section, we describe the most challenging, or stressful, facets of legal cases for children. In the second section, we discuss characteristics within children and in their external environment that likely modulate how they cope with legal involvement. We also offer several recommendations about methods that should facilitate children’s coping and reduce potential harm during the case and after it has ended. We close by highlighting several critical questions that remain regarding how best to facilitate children’s involvement in and coping with legal involvement.