Parental alienation (PA) is a form of childhood emotional abuse in which one parent instrumentally uses the child to inflict psychological harm on the other parent for revenge. The consequences of parental alienating behaviours range from mild (…) to severe, where the positive affective parent–child bond is severed and extremely difficult to reinstate under family therapy.

Forskningen bekrefter at der er en årsakssammenheng mellom maksimal gjensidig foreldreomsorg og barns helse. Det bør norsk lovgivning gjenspeile. 

Bekymringen for barns helse og velferd etter skilsmisse er velbegrunnet på tvers av motsetninger om delt omsorg og lik omsorgstid fra foreldre. Vi foreslår endringer i rettspraksis som kan trygge dem som mener vi må begrense omsorg fra skadelige foreldre, samtidig som vi sikrer barn rett til gjensidig omsorg fra «gode nok» foreldre.

Barn kan av ulike årsaker motsette seg samvær med den ene eller begge foreldrene, noe som er en kjent problemstilling blant terapeuter og sakkyndige psykologer som jobber med foreldrekonflikter eller barnevernssaker (Frafjord et al., 2020). Dette kan forekomme i saker hvor foreldrene ikke lever sammen, etter samlivsbrudd eller i tilfeller hvor barnet er tatt under offentlig omsorg og skal ha samvær med biologiske foreldre.

Hvordan man som part kan prøve å få retten og sakkyndiges oppmerksomhet på problemstillingen i saker der det er rimelig grunn til å mene at det forekommer foreldrefiendtliggjøring.

Ved norske domstoler er det helt generelt svært vanskelig å få gjennomslag for en forståelse for at barn kan være gjenstand for systematisk manipulering og annen form for påvirkning som leder barnet til å ta ubegrunnet avstand fra den ene forelder og favorisere den andre.

Despite affecting millions of families around the world, parental alienation has been largely unacknowledged or denied by legal and health professionals as a form of family violence. This complex form of aggression entails a parental figure engaging in the long-term use of a variety of aggressive behaviors to harm the relationship between their child and another parental figure, and/or to hurt the other parental figure directly because of their relationship with their child. Like other forms of family violence, parental alienation has serious and negative consequences for family members, yet victims are often blamed for their experience.

There have been legislative efforts to control how child custody decisions are handled in family courts where allegations of abuse and of parental alienation (PA) are levied. The “findings” reported to support such legislation have been based on one unreviewed study with identified methodological issues (Harman & Lorandos, 2021). We tested six pre-registered hypotheses to determine whether there is empirical support for the “research findings” used to support these laws.

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