“No matter what you think of the other party, these children are one-half of each of you. Remember that, because every time you tell your child what an ‘idiot’ his father is, or what a ‘fool’ his mother is, you are telling the child half of him is bad” (From a divorce ruling, Judge Michael Haas, MN, USA, 2001)."
The Impact of Parental Alienating Behaviours on the Mental Health of Adults Alienated in Childhood
Article from The National Library of Medicine/PubMed Central. (link to complete article at the bottom)
This study qualitatively investigated the mental health of adults exposed to parental alienating behaviours in childhood. Research suggests that exposure to parental alienating behaviours in childhood can have a profound impact on the mental health of those children later in life, including experiencing anxiety disorders and trauma reactions.
An international sample of 20 adults exposed to parental alienating behaviours in childhood participated in semi-structured interviews on their experience and its impact. Four themes were identified: mental health difficulties, including anxiety disorders and trauma reactions, emotional pain, addiction and substance use, and coping and resilience. Intergenerational transmission of parental alienation was found. Confusion in understanding their experience of alienation, the mental health sequelae, and elevated levels of suicidal ideation were found.
This study demonstrated the insidious nature of parental alienation and parental alienating behaviours and provided further evidence of these behaviours as a form of emotional abuse.
1.1. The Alienating Parent
To understand the experience of alienated children, it is important to review the characteristics and behaviours of the alienating parent who creates the predicament for the child. It has been suggested that alienating parents present with paranoid, histrionic, or narcissistic personality traits and have affective disorders, suicidal ideation, and lack resilience around separation and loss.
They also tend to have dysfunctional family histories and poor relationships with their parents. Their desire for vengeance, coupled with feelings of anger and frustration, may inhibit them from having a more moderate view of the relationship between the child and the targeted parent. As a result, the alienating parent engages in behaviours and processes that prioritise their own needs over and above the child’s needs.
Parental alienation has been defined by some as a serious mental condition in children exposed to parental alienating behaviours. Parental alienation can be identified through the presence of five factors: the child refuses, opposes, or avoids a relationship with a parent; the child had a positive relationship with that parent before they rejected them; there is no evidence of abuse or neglect perpetrated by the rejected parent; the other parent has used multiple parental alienating behaviours; the child exhibits behavioural manifestations of parental alienation.
Consideration of parental alienation as a mental condition diagnosed in children has attracted criticism in the literature. Others take a broader view of parental alienation with a focus on the nature and outcome of parental alienating behaviours. Parental alienating behaviours are considered a complex cluster of strategies used by alienating parents to damage and sever the relationship between the child and the child’s other parent (targeted parent). It has been suggested that parental alienating behaviours are best understood in the context of family violence, whereby parental alienation is the outcome of an abusive process perpetrated by the alienating parent. Parental alienating behaviours can include the alienating parent discrediting the targeted parent by sabotaging, undermining, and manipulating their relationship with the child. It is thought that at least 19% of the population in the United States has been exposed to parental alienating behaviours. This contrasts with parental estrangement, where the parent–child relationship has been negatively affected, usually with a sound rationale for the child’s rejection of the parent.
The full article can be read through the link below:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9026878/