Comparison of the capabilities of the questionnaire “Analysis of Family Relationships” and “Parental Essay” as methods for assessing the parental attitude of mothers in forensic psychological examination of disputes about education

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Context and relevance.</strong> In expert practice, semi-projective methods and questionnaires are most often used to assess parental attitudes. <strong>Objective.</strong> To compare the capabilities of the methods “Analysis of Family Relationships” and “Parental Essay” for studying the characteristics of parental attitudes of mothers living together and separately with their children, during forensic psychological examinations in disputes about upbringing. <strong>Hypothesis.</strong> Categories that differ significantly between mothers living together and separately from their child can be identified by both methods; the results of applying the methods will significantly correlate in identical categories. <strong>Methods and materials.</strong> The study involved 30 women undergoing forensic psychological examination as part of a legal dispute on determining the child's place of residence or the procedure for communicating with a parent living separately. Parental attitude was established using the “Parental Essay” method, and parenting style was determined using the “Analysis of Family Relationships” questionnaire. <strong>Results.</strong> The results showed significant differences in the studied groups in the parameters “respect”, “unstable parenting style”, “underdevelopment of parental feelings”, “introduction of conflict between spouses into the sphere of education”. <strong>Conclusions. </strong>It is shown that the essay reveals unconscious attitudes through text analysis (qualitative data), and the standardized questionnaire gives a quantitative assessment on scales; both methods complement each other and make it possible to use them integratively.</p>