On the whole, professionals agree that there is an advantage in both parents having access to the child or children after separation. This paper provides (1) an overview of the controversy over the value of such access; (2) a description of various contexts of access disputes and perspectives involved in the assessment of access situations; (3) a literature review on the relationship between marital turmoil and children's problems; (4) a discussion emphasizing the importance of the child's perspective on access problems; and (5) a report of a study of 25 cases of children during late latency and early adolescence who refused to go on access visits. The study was made with a view toward identifying demogaphic and contextual correlates of such refusals in order to improve counseling assessment and intervention. (RH)