Leyfi til að elska - mar. 2023, Blaðsíða 45

Poustie et al. 21
Law 12 318 as cited in Soares, 2010). Previous research suggests that court
judgments that are swift, clear, and forceful are likely to be the best chance
for curbing alienation (Vassiliou & Cartwright, 2001).
Study Limitations
This study met its aim in contributing to the existing database on the targeted
parent experience of parental alienation and alienating behaviors. However,
there are some noteworthy limitations. First, the current study is limited by its
reliance on self-reports. The narratives of respondents have been treated as
true in this study; however, there is no way of guaranteeing that all partici-
pants were indeed targeted parents. It is possible that some participants may
have been estranged from their children. Furthermore, it is worth acknowl-
edging the limited accuracy of self-reports such that each narrative in the data
is only one perspective of an individual’s circumstance.
Although the narratives are from a large, international data set, we are
limited in our ability to generalize the themes identified here to all targeted
parents’ experience of alienation and alienating behaviors. Consider, for
example, the grievances directed toward the System: these are pervasive
throughout the data, however, it is somewhat unsurprising that the majority
of participants in this study are deeply unhappy with court proceedings—any
targeted parent who is content with legal input is likely to be the person who
is no longer alienated from their child.
Like any thematic analysis, there is an unavoidable limitation of the
researchers’ tendency to bring their own biases to the analysis and thus some-
what tarnishing the raw data, despite all attempts and intentions to conduct
research within a purely inductive, data-driven approach (Hansen, 2006;
Marton, 1986; Mays & Pope, 1995).
Future Directions
Deeper exploration of the targeted parent perspective might be gained through
qualitative research using interviews that involve more targeted questioning.
The current findings suggest that targeted parents are equally males and
females. These findings do not support previous research that indicated that
mothers are more commonly found to be alienating parents (Bow et al., 2009;
Ellis & Boyan, 2010; Meier, 2009; Rand, 1997; Vassiliou & Cartwright,
2001). However, our findings are consistent with a few studies that have
found that both genders engage in parental alienation tactics (Hands &
Warshak, 2011; López, Iglesias, & García, 2014). Future research could fur-
ther explore gender differences in the targeted parent experience. Further
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