The sobering fact of family law is that to be in the business of orchestrating

Chapter 7
Developmental Asynchrony and De´calage
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and social dynamics, and to applying developmental theory to the many
dilemmas of family law.
This chapter describes several profiles associated with develop-
mental de´calage and their relevance to family law process. I propose
that children’s interests are best served by forensic outcomes that speak
to their relative developmental weaknesses, rather than to their
strengths. These issues are of particular importance when the court
accords “mature” minors special privileges relevant to family litigation,
a topic addressed in detail in chapter 14.