Leyfi til að elska - Mar 2023, Page 26

2 Journal of Family Issues 00(0)
Parental alienation occurs when a child aligns with one parent and partakes in
a campaign of unjustified denigration against the other, once-loved parent
(Baker & Andre, 2008; Gardner, 2002). For various reasons, the aligned par-
ent teaches their child to dislike the other parent, experience fear when they
are around that parent, and to avoid having contact with them (Darnall, 2011).
These behaviors can be referred to as alienating behaviors. In present study,
the term “parental alienation” is used to refer to a process in which a child is
alienated from the targeted parent as a consequence of the alienating behav-
iors of the aligned or alienating parent. Parental alienation differs from
estrangement, which occurs when a child rejects a parent on reasonable
grounds, such as in response to neglect (Garber, 2011).
To date, the literature has largely focused on conceptualizing parental
alienation—debating the notion of a diagnosable syndrome or developing
models to extrapolate the phenomenon rather than focusing on the lived expe-
rience of parental alienation (e.g., Bernet & Baker, 2013; Drozd & Olesen,
2010; Lowenstein, 2013; Meier, 2009, 2010; Pepiton, Alvis, Allen, & Logid,
2012; Walker & Shapiro, 2010). The research into the subjective experience of
parental alienation has primarily explored the behaviors of the alienating par-
ent (e.g., Baker, 2005, 2006; Ellis & Boyan, 2010; Garber, 2011; Kopetski,
1998; Rand, 1997) and the perspective of the targeted child (e.g., Baker, 2005,
2006; Baker & Chambers, 2011; Ben-Ami & Baker, 2012; Godbout & Parent,
2012; Hands & Warshak, 2011; Johnston, 2003; Kelly & Johnston, 2001).
In relation to the experience and characteristics of targeted parents, some
studies have identified common emotional outcomes for targeted parents
such as stress, frustration, loss, fear, and helplessness (Baker & Andre, 2008;
Baker & Darnall, 2006; Schwartz, 2015; Vassiliou & Cartwright, 2001).
Baker and Fine (2014) provided the narratives of 11 targeted parents who
described enduring anguish over the loss of their children and uncertainty
about the outcome of their predicament. These findings are consistent with
Vassiliou and Cartwright (2001) who examined the emotional outcomes of
six targeted parents. These parents reported feelings of powerlessness leading
to further difficulties in the targeted parent–child relationship such as diffi-
culty responding to the child’s emotional state and defiant behavior. This in
turn perpetuated the parental alienation (Vassiliou & Cartwright, 2001).
Furthermore, targeted parents’ feelings of dissatisfaction with both the men-
tal health and legal services involved has been well documented in the litera-
ture (e.g., Baker, 2010; Baker & Darnall, 2006, 2007; Baker & Fine, 2014;
Vassiliou & Cartwright, 2001). Another study (N = 10) focused on targeted
mothers and highlighted the trauma that ensues when a mother is alienated
from her child (Finzi-Dottan, Goldblatt, & Cohen-Masica, 2012). It has been
contended that the trauma of the alienation experience can in itself perpetuate
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