When parents separate, the child, who occupies a large place in the family, often becomes the central issue in conflicts. The child's suffering is not so much linked to the breakup itself as to the way it happens. Despite good intentions, parents, overwhelmed by their own emotions, sometimes struggle to spare their children. The most harmful effects are observed when, in a context of violent interaction, one of the parents (sometimes both) takes the child as a witness, fueling the child's sense of helplessness.

Parental alienation is a reality in many families after a marriage breakup and “woke feminists” cannot simply dismiss it as a legal defence to hide family violence, says Toronto family lawyer Gene C. Colman.

“There is a robust academic literature on parental alienation, says Colman, principal of the Gene C. Colman Family Law Centre. “I’m talking about peer-reviewed articles, social science literature. I’m talking about a healthy body of case law authored by respected judges. It is widely accepted that it is real. It happens.”

Tittelen på denne tobindsserien peker på nye horisonter innen systemisk praksis. Innenfor praksisdomenet som vurderes i dette kapitlet, er nye horisonter ingen steder tydeligere enn i det rommet der de mest intense og langvarige foreldretvistene om barn oppstår. Disse tvistene involverer vanligvis en versjon av det spesialister kaller 'motstå/nekte-dynamikken' (Walters & Friedlander, 2016)). Denne dynamikken ses i en gruppe barn som viser motvilje mot å gå på rettsbeordret samvær / kontakt med sin samværsforelder, motstår meningsfylt engasjement med denne forelderen når de går på rettsforeskrevet besøk og noen ganger nekter å ha noen kontakt overhodet med den forelderen.

The title of this two-volume series points to newly emerging horizons within systemic practice. Within the practice domain under consideration in this chapter, new horizons are nowhere more evident than in that space where the most intense and prolonged postseparation parental disputes about children occur. These disputes usually involve some version of what specialists call the 'resist/refuse dynamic' (Walters & Friedlander, 2016)). This dynamic is seen in a group of children who show reluctance to go on court-ordered access/contact with their non-resident parent, resist meaningful engagement with this parent when they do go on court-prescribed visitation and sometimes refuse to have any contact whatsoever with that parent.

Den danske regjering (Socialdemokratiet, Moderaterne og Venstre) har inngått en avtale med de øvrige partiene i Folketinget om å fremme barns interesser og velferd blant annet med å hindre og raskt slå ned på foreldresjikane og -fremmedgjøring. 

The Danish government (Social Democrats, Moderates and Liberal Party) has entered into an agreement with the other parties in the Folketing to promote children's interests and welfare, including by preventing and quickly cracking down on parental harassment and alienation. 

In the research literature, the term role disorder (enmeshment) is used to refer to parent-child relationships that are characterized by the psychological boundaries not being sufficiently established. Role disorders between parents and children can occur if the parent has difficulty regulating their own, often unconscious, need for support and affirmation. The adult's needs take up so much space in the relationship that they displace or get in the way of the child's needs.

I faglitteraturen benyttes begrepet rolleforstyrrelse (enmeshment) om foreldre-barn relasjoner som er preget av at de psykologiske grensene ikke er godt nok etablert. Rolleforstyrrelser mellom foreldre og barn kan oppstå hvis forelderen har vansker med å regulere sine egne, ofte ubevisste, behov for støtte og bekreftelser. Den voksnes behov tar så mye plass i relasjonen at det fortrenger eller kommer i veien for barnets behov.

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