Le refus de contact d’un enfant avec un parent dans un contexte de divorce conflictuel – Partie I. Recension des recherches cliniques et judiciaires

Abstract

BackgroundThis article presents a review of literature concerning situations where a child or an adolescent refuses all contact with a parent in the course of a high conflict separation or divorce. Such situations, which happen frequently in child psychiatry, are the cause of numerous judicial litigations. MethodThe sixteen studies reviewed are those which have been conducted jointly by clinicians and courts since 1987, some of them initiated by the American, Canadian or French departments of Justice. ResultsThese studies show why the concept of “parental alienation syndrome” cannot be used since it results in important errors of assessment which put the children in danger both emotionally and physically. Considering its lack of scientific foundation, the inscription of the term has been denied both in DSM5 and ICD 11. False allegations of sexual abuse are very rare (between 0.8 and 6% of allegations in studies dealing with large series). Several research studies underline the existence of a statistical link between domestic violence prior to divorce and ill-treatments against children committed by the fathers in the exercise of their visiting and accommodation rights. Two longitudinal studies show that 81% of minors spontaneously reconnect with the “refused” parent. In the remaining 19%, most children have relevant reasons for not wanting to meet this parent. There can be situations of control including brainwashing from either mothers or fathers, but they only represent a minor part of the refusal situations. ConclusionIt is deemed necessary to define the clinical methodology allowing to assess the processes at work when a child refuses contact with a parent and to determine if the cause is a pathological control from the other parent on the child or any other reason. This is the subject of another article.