Parental alienation – a valid experience?
Eivind Meland, Dag Furuholmen and David Jahanlu.
From Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 1–9
Summary by Eivind Meland
ENG: This is the first empirical study from Norway on parental alienation and one of very few in a Nordic context. This has been a neglected field of research despite the fact that it has major and negative consequences for both children and adolescents, but also for adults. The study shows that being affected by parental alienation in adulthood is associated with major health consequences. The article also shows that this is a scientifically limited and valid concept.
NOR: Dette er den første empiriske studien fra Norge om foreldrefremmedgjøring og en av svært få i Nordisk sammenheng. Dette har vært et forsømt forskningsfelt på tross av at det har store og negative konsekvenser for både barn og unge, men også for voksne. Studien viser at å rammes av fiendtliggjøring i voksen alder er forbundet med store helsekonsekvenser. Artikkelen viser også at dette er et vitenskapelig avgrenset og valid begrep.
Abstract
Background:
The phenomenon of ‘parental alienation’ is controversial and little explored in the Nordic countries. We wanted to investigate whether parental alienation is a valid concept and how it is perceived in a Nordic context.
Material and method:
The study was based on an online survey where the participants were self-recruited. We received responses from 1212 participants. Bivariate and multivariate models were used to test the associations between parental alienation and gender, other intimate partner violence, depressive health problems and reduced well-being.
Results:
Visitation sabotage and parental alienation are realities for both fathers and mothers. It was most frequently directed at fathers, but such behaviour is not gender specific. Eight different alienation strategies have high internal reliability, and all items contribute to high Cronbach’s alpha. Construct validity was confirmed by the fact that parental alienation is strongly associated with visitation sabotage and with other forms of destructive relational behaviour. Visitation sabotage and false accusations increase gradually with the degree of parental alienation. The construct validity of parental alienation was also confirmed by dose–response associations with both mental ill-health and impaired well-being in adjusted analyses.
Conclusions:
The phenomenon of parental alienation is recognized among parents as a form of harmful behaviour where both mothers and fathers suffer. The construct validity was supported in this study. Such behaviour should be recognized as a form of domestic violence by professional communities in health and social services and be subject to legal action.
Introduction
Children who are influenced by parents, therapists or employees in welfare services so that they create an enemy image of the parent(s) with whom they do not have permanent residence may be exposed to a destructive dynamic that, internationally, has the term ‘parental alienation’ [1–3]. A recent literature review describes parental alienation as a complex form of family violence directed at a parent in order to damage their relationship with their own children [3].
The prevalence of parental alienation in the Nordic countries has been only indirectly explored with lost contact between children and biological parents. By the age of 17 years, 12% of the adolescents reported loss of parental contact, mostly with fathers [4]. Another Norwegian study from cross-sectional data over 13 years found that an increasing number of adolescents lost contact, almost exclusively with their fathers [5]. Statistics Norway has estimated that between 26,000 and 46,000 children do not see their fathers during an average month [6].
The public health relevance is firmly documented by a representative study from the USA showing that the phenomenon is widespread, as nearly 10% of the adult population had been exposed to significant parental alienation by their partners [7]. The consequences for children of being exposed to such behaviour by a parent, like other forms of family violence, are large and lifelong, with increased crime, school dropout, substance abuse problems, depression and anxiety as a result. In addition, such experiences in childhood will often lead to the repetition of similar behaviour in adulthood: the alienation ‘infects’ new generations [8].
Whereas previously it was common to talk about a ‘syndrome’ that manifested itself in the child [9], the focus is now on a relationship problem that meets five main criteria [10]:
1. The child avoids, opposes or refuses to have a relationship with a parent.
2. The child has previously had a positive relationship with the parent who is now alienated.
3. The alienated parent has not subjected the child to abuse or neglect.
4. The favoured parent employs multiple alienating strategies and methods.
5. The child shows signs of behavioural disturbance that indicate alienation.
The alienating parent uses manipulative parenting behaviour to change the child’s thoughts and feelings about the other parent. For example, convincing the child that the other is a bad parent and a bad person who does not deserve their love and respect, and promotes negative themes that highlight the other parent’s real, exaggerated or imagined shortcomings and flaws. Unsubstantiated and false allegations of forms of abuse can be used by one parent to gain advantage over the other parent – allegations of domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse of children, or neglect [11]. Parental alienation is manifested in the child with hostile feelings and cognitions against a parent, often with lack of ambivalence and appropriate justifications [3].
In Nordic countries, parts of the academic community have been reluctant to recognize the phenomenon as harmful to children’s health and functioning. Some researchers still claim that parental alienation lacks construct validity [12]. The Ministry of Children and Equality in Norway has warned against having confidence in a party to the court who refers to parental alienation. The Ministry has taken the view that parental alienation is not scientifically documented, and that it may lead to victims of violence and abuse being distrusted [13].
Research on health consequences is most closely related to harmful effects on children, and on adults who have been exposed to such impacts as children. Consistent findings with impaired mental and social health confirm that this phenomenon has construct validity [3]. An increasing body of research is now also linked to parents who are victims of alienation by the other parent or by public officials [14,15]. Alienated parents often have significant anxiety, depression, stress and physical symptoms. They may feel powerless, hopeless and socially isolated. Several studies found that they felt they had lost part of their identity due to losing their role as a parent. Four studies reported high levels of suicidality among alienated parents [11]. This, too, confirms that this is a phenomenon that has construct validity and substantially impacts public health.
Over the past couple of years, some key professional bodies in Norway have also recognized that this phenomenon entails a major health risk that must be taken seriously by health care institutions as well as judicial bodies [16,17]. Historically, parental alienation has been viewed with suspicion by advocates fighting domestic violence against women. Some spokespersons for this important campaign still hold the opinion that parental alienation is a fake excuse from male perpetrators of domestic violence, whereas some now realize that parental alienation is not a gender-specific phenomenon as it is also directed against mothers.
However, we have not been able to identify any studies from Nordic countries investigating the prevalence or health consequences of parental alienation. With data from an online survey, we therefore set ourselves the goal of investigating:
•Whether parental alienation is a phenomenon that is recognizable by parents;
Whether parental alienation can be conceptualized as a valid construct;
•The extent to which parental alienation is a gender-specific phenomenon.
Material and method
Two of the authors (DF and EM) were responsible for the preparation of questions in this online survey on family and divorce experiences. The study was based on material where the participants were self-recruited and presented with a questionnaire on a professional survey platform hosted by an online management system, SurveyXact™ (Ramböll Management Consulting, Oslo, Norway). The survey was widely shared, mainly by word of mouth, Twitter, Facebook sites and a wide selection of Norwegian Facebook groups that were expected to be relevant for this topic. The invitation stated that the survey intended to examine quality of life, psychological health, and child-care cooperation among parents after divorce and cohabitation break-up. Prevalence data cannot be transferred to the general population. On the other hand, it is important to say that a significant number of participants reported currently stable and unproblematic cohabitations without custody conflicts. The questionnaire is presented as supplemental material on the net.
Participants
Twelve hundred and twelve people responded (68% male and 32% female). Of those, 820 answered the survey completely. All answers were used in the analyses. Table I shows the participants, with separate columns for men and women with p-values from cross tabulation Chi-squared tests.
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