Parental alienation is often opposed as a concept that may discourage mothers subjected to intimate partner violence to reveal current abuse in families. We should not blankly refuse this as a reality in society. However, we must also acknowledge research that demonstrates that fathers and mothers may use false allegations of violence in order to alienate their children from the other parent in conflictual separation and divorce. This phenomenon, called parental alienation, is prevalent in our society. It is not gender specific and it is associated with other types of family violence perpetrated by the alienating parent and directed against the other parent and the children as well. Therefore, it represents a significant public health concern. The paper highlights conflicts and gaps in the literature concerning our understanding of post-divorce conflicts.

ABSTRACT Brazil was, and remains, the first country to legally recognise and penalise acts classified as ‘parental alienation’. The enactment and application of this Act have been widely criticised in Brazil due to its adverse effects on the decision-making process and its potential risks to children’s best interests and women’s rights. This article explores how ‘parental alienation’ became a legal concept in Brazil and examines its impact on the family justice system, as well as on the rights of children and women. Additionally, we present findings from a decision-making experiment conducted with 45 legal professionals – including judges, prosecutors, lawyers, psychologists, and social workers – in Brazil and England. The results reveal that legal actors influenced by ‘parental alienation’ assumptions tended to overlook the inherent uncertainty and complexity of cases, ultimately impairing the decision-making process and compromising the best interests of children.

Parental alienation syndrome (PAS) and its reformulation as parental alienation (PA) have gained traction in family courts despite persistent scientific controversy. This review synthesizes peer-reviewed research across psychology, law, and family studies from 1985 to 2025 to examine the empirical foundations and professional acceptance of PA/PAS. The analysis suggests that Gardner's original formulation and subsequent iterations fail to meet basic validity requirements for psychological constructs and are unsupported by research. Major medical, psychiatric, and psychological professional organizations have rejected PA/PAS as a legitimate concept. Empirical data shows a troubling correlation between PA allegations and documented domestic violence, with such claims frequently functioning as litigation strategies that redirect attention from abuse allegations. When courts credit PA claims, children face measurable harms including placement with abusive parents and subjection to unvalidated reunification interventions. These findings suggest that PA allegations often represent a form of post-separation coercive control and call for heightened judicial skepticism when such claims arise alongside safety concerns.

This paper elaborates an interdisciplinary explanation of intergenerational and grandparental alienation as a type of relational coercion that the existing institutional environment can reinforce. It suggests that, in addition to interpersonal conflict, alienation can be held in check by narrative, therapeutic, media, and family-law processes, especially when a more or less uniform set of standards, such as the best interests of the child, is employed without sufficient regard for the continuity of extended families. The two high-profile cases used in the manuscript and analyzed qualitatively and interpretively through a review of publicly available stories and legal circumstances contrast how estrangement may be justified in different arenas: symbolic alienation through reputational and media dynamics, and juridical alienation through custody, relocation, and court processes. The manuscript concludes with reform-based recommendations, including more evidentiary criteria, more explicit recognition of intergenerational harms, and protection against coercive control dynamics that may be exercised under the umbrella of safety and empowerment.

Research Proposal: Recognition and Remediation of Parental Alienation in Indian Custody Disputes

Visitation disputes in Pakistan often leave minor children caught between custodial and non-custodial parents, while courts rely heavily on interim injunctions. These injunctions are frequently issued mechanically, often based solely on an affidavit, and usually ex parte. In practice, appellate courts routinely grant or extend such orders without fully considering the welfare of the child, causing long-term delays and depriving minors of meaningful contact with one parent. This study explores the misuse of interim injunctions in family law, arguing that they often violate constitutional protections under Articles 4, 9, 10-A, and 15. Family courts operate in loco parentis, with a quasi-parental responsibility toward minors. Suspension of visitation without thorough inquiry undermines not only statutory mandates under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 and the Family Courts Act, 1964 but also the emotional and psychological well-being of children, potentially leading to parental alienation, insecurity, and long-term behavioral issues.

Parental alienation (PA) refers to a child’s unwarranted rejection of one parent, often linked to long-term psychological harm. Reunification therapy is increasingly used in high-conflict custody cases, yet children’s perspectives remain underexplored. This study surveyed 100 children and adolescents who completed the Family Reunification and Restoration Program (FRRP), a court-connected intervention. Independent researchers assessed experiences across six domains, including safety, program helpfulness, and relationship improvement. Results showed high levels of perceived safety, support, and satisfaction, with younger children reporting slightly greater reunification gains. Findings provide empirical insight into children’s views and inform ethical, effective reunification practices.

The article explores the theoretical and practical aspects of conducting psychological examinations in family disputes involving parental alienation. The novelty of this work is that it fills the gap in considering the psychological dimension of child alienation in family conflicts and offers practical tools to protect the rights of children and parents. This study analyzes modern scholarly publications and legal precedents where parental alienation has been documented. It examines the legal and psychological features of this phenomenon and its impact on a child, including its theoretical basis, criteria, and the practical application of expert findings. The study also explores how to distinguish genuine alienation from a justified breakdown in a relationship. The main signs and forms of child alienation are identified, and the difficulties in recognizing and proving it in court are highlighted. The article points to the need for effective mechanisms to detect this condition and emphasizes the importance of considering the manipulative influence on the child in legal practice. It also calls for amending Ukrainian legislation to clearly define alienation as a form of psychological abuse. Special attention is given to the importance of improving the qualifications of judges, lawyers, and psychologists on this issue to ensure the child’s best interests are met during family dispute resolution. The study’s findings are of practical value to psychologists, judges, lawyers, social workers, and parents. They offer tools to identify manipulative influence, raise awareness of its consequences, and improve legal practice. Understanding the criteria for alienation will help experts and parents identify signs of the problem and encourage them to seek professional help. Incorporating alienation detection methods into the curricula of psychology and law students will enhance their competence in resolving family disputes.

BackgroundParental alienation is a complex psychosocial phenomenon that occurs mainly in cases of conflictual divorce, in which one parent attempts to alienate the child from the other. The child, through manipulative behaviour or emotional pressure, sometimes develops negative feelings towards the alienated parent.MethodsThe aim of the study is the exploration of the phenomenon of parental alienation, the recording of children’s needs and the psychological effects of the alienated children. A mixed methodology is applied, combining a quantitative survey of mental health professionals and subsequently qualitative research of Case Studies. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with the alienated parent, as well as with the staff of all the agencies involved.ResultsParental alienation causes significant psychosocial and emotional problems in children, which, if not detected and managed in time, may have long-term consequences, affecting the children’s emotional development as well as their social adjustment and overall quality of life.ConclusionsPrevention, prompt and timely detection and implementation of holistic interventions are crucial at parental alienation cases. The first is possible through the provision of psychological support to families both during the period of divorce and during family’s adjustment. The creation of a healthy emotional environment for children can make a significant contribution to ensuring their mental health and restoring their relationships with both parents.Key messages• Parental alienation causes significant emotional and psychological difficulties for children, which, if not addressed in time, can develop into chronic mental health problems. Early recognition of the phenomenon by parents, schools and experts, as well as the implementation of integrated interventions with the cooperation of child psychologists, social workers and legal authorities, is crucial.• Prevention, psychological support for families and the creation of a safe emotional environment for the child as well as the divorced parents can make a significant contribution to ensuring the child’s mental health and restoring his or her relationship with both parents.TopicParental alienation, mental health, alienated children.

ABSTRACT Scant academic attention has been paid to damaging contradictions in the responsibilisation of mothers regarding the quality of fathers’ relationships with their children in Private Law Proceedings (PLP), otherwise known as the family court. Recent research has highlighted both the poor physical and mental health experiences of women going through family court proceedings and how parental alienation allegations are weaponised to trap, silence, and pathologise mothers. This paper utilises an autoethnographic case study to explore the positioning of mothers by professionals within complex discourses of motherhood in PLP. The regulation, surveillance and possible sanctions of the PLP left limited options for resistance, as resisting the position of the ‘good’ mother could result in detrimental sanctions against the mother and children. This paper evidences how patriarchal institutional processes are complicit in enabling fathers to maintain coercive control over mothers and their children.

ABSTRACT The analysis developed throughout this research showed that the study of Family Law, with emphasis on shared custody from the perspective of constitutional principles, reveals importante legal and psychological repercussions. Initially, the foundations and principles that govern Family Law are presented, such as the dignity of the human person, the best interest of the child, gender equality, affectivity, family solidarity and integral protection. These principles guide legal action in the resolution of family conflicts and in the construction of solutions that ensure the rights of all those involved, especially children and adolescents. Then, the study focuses on the institute of shared custody, addressing its different unilateral, alternate, nidal species and the criteria used by the Judiciary in its application. Shared custody is analyzed as an instrument that aims to preserve the healthy coexistence of the child with both parents, promoting their emotional and psychological development, provided that there is cooperation between parents. The effects of parental alienation and affective abandonment, recognized as forms of emotional violence that can seriously compromise child well-being, are also discussed. The work also examines the impacts of shared custody in different age groups, as well as the effects that conflicts between parents can cause on children’s mental health. The action of the Judiciary as a mediator in litigation cases is highlighted as fundamental to ensure the balance of family relationships and ensure that decisions are aligned with the best interest of the child. It is concluded that shared custody, when well structured and applied responsibly, can be an important tool for the promotion of fairer, more balanced and respectful family relationships. The effectiveness of this model depends, however, on a sensitive look at the legal system, the ability of parents to establish dialogue and the offer of psychological support whenever necessary. Key-words: Family law; Shared custody; Constitutional principles; Best interests of children and adolescents.

Although regulated in other states and existing in previous Romanian case-law on the matter, the institution of parental alienation was regulated in Romania for the first time through Law no.123/2024 amending and supplementing Law no.272/2004 on the protection and promotion of the rights of the child. In analyzing this new regulation, wepresent a theoretical approach to the provisions of the law, which starts with clarifying both the legal and the psychological concept of parental alienation and continues with the effects of regulating this new institution on the exercise of parental authority, with the competent authorities and the legal measures that must be taken in the event of its existence, as well as with the shortcomings that may arise in judicial practice. While undoubtedly appreciating the regulation itself, we cannot help but notice the fact that for Romania it represents just a beginning of the journey, with challenges, risks, and also some gaps that need to be filled in the future.

This article sought to analyze the effectiveness of parenting workshops carried out by CEJUSC, in the District of Viçosa-MG, focusing on their impact on the prevention of parental alienation and the quality of life of families, according to the perceptions of family units. Methodologically, semi-structured interviews were used, whose data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and textual analysis, with the support of Iramutq and GNU PSPP Software. The results showed that the meaning of quality of life is associated with the well-being of children and a life without conflicts, in peace, which is affected by the dissolution of marital relationships. Furthermore, it was found that conflictive relationships arising from divorce were mitigated through the workshop strategies. In this sense, it can be concluded that the parenting workshop generally positively influences the quality of life of families and prevents parental alienation, through educational practices; although there are criticisms of the current legislation, due to the difficulties in distinguishing common conduct during the family reorganization phase, from acts of parental alienation.

This article uses autoethnographic poetic inquiry to explore the experiences of domestic abuse survivors, as they navigate the family court system in the UK. The author’s lived experiences are explored and illuminated through a research poem, with this piece used as a pivot around which the academic literature spins. The analysis reveals a court system that systematically fails parents and children who have experienced domestic abuse, particularly those from marginalized and vulnerable communities. Not only does this system fail to protect adults and children from risk, it often retraumatizes them, and is easily used by perpetrators as a weapon through which to continue, intensify, or instigate their abuse. There is an urgent need to address these issues, and to challenge the domestic abuse stereotypes, pro-contact culture, adversarial system, underresourcing and reliance on the dubious concept of “parental alienation” that underpins them. Autoethnography and poetic inquiry offer powerful tools through which to raise these important issues and ignite a call for change.

This analysis discusses the visual representation of the phenomenon of loneliness parenting in the film “Bila Esok Ibu Tiada” using Roland Barthes’ semiotic approach. Film is positioned as a medium that reflects and shapes social meaning, especially related to family dynamics and maternal identity. The semiotic method used includes three aspects: denotation, connotation, and myth, to trace visual signs that build an understanding of the figure of a mother who experiences emotional alienation in raising children. The main findings show that loneliness parenting is represented through Rahmi’s character as a single mother who experiences social and emotional isolation, highlighting structural pressures in the family and the emotional disconnection between mother and child after the death of the father. This study also explores how the cultural myth of ideal motherhood—such as sacrifice, resilience, and the central role of the mother—is dismantled and challenged through Rahmi’s characterization. Thus, this film is not only a medium of representation, but also an arena for contestation of the meaning of maternal identity in a changing social context. This study contributes to media and cultural studies, especially in understanding how visual media shapes public perception of social phenomena such as parental alienation, gender burden, and the restructuring of affective relations in modern families.

PurposeThis study aimed to examine whether perceived parental alienation mediates the relationship between parental and adolescent depressive symptoms, and, if so, whether parents’ subjective health moderates this indirect effect.MethodsThis cross-sectional study utilized secondary data from the 2021 wave of the Panel Study on Korean Children, enrolling 541 parent–child dyads. Parental depression was measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale-6, a self-rated health item, the Korean version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children, and a 6-item perceived alienation scale. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and variance inflation factor checks were conducted, followed by mediation and moderated mediation analyses using PROCESS Models 4 and 7 with 10,000 bootstraps in IBM SPSS ver. 27.0.ResultsParental depression did not directly predict adolescent depression (B=.02, t=.87) but was significantly related to perceived alienation (B=.16, p<.001), which in turn predicted higher adolescent depression (B=.20, p<.001). The indirect effect of alienation was also significant (B=.039; 95% confidence interval, 0.005–0.066). Subjective health moderated the depression–alienation link (interaction B=.19, p<.001), with stronger indirect effects observed among parents with better health.ConclusionParental depression symptoms indirectly increase adolescent depression through perceived alienation, particularly when parents viewed their health positively. These results suggest that interventions targeting parental mental health and fostering open-family communication may help reduce adolescent depression.

In light of the legitimacy crisis surrounding Brazil’s Parental Alienation Law (Law No. 12,318/2010), the subject of intense debates regarding its potential revocation based on claims that it enables the instrumentalization of family violence, this study examines the evolution of the Canadian legal framework, which has shifted from the concept of parental alienation toward a broader classification of family violence and coercive control. The objective is to identify insights that may contribute to strengthening child and adolescent protection mechanisms in Brazil. To this end, the article undertakes a comparative, documentary, and literature-based analysis of the Civil Law system (Brazil) and the Common Law system (Canada), with particular attention to statutory reforms, case law, and reports issued by the Canadian Department of Justice in 2005 and 2023. The findings indicate that the core distinction does not lie in the text of the law itself but in the systemic maturity of the Canadian approach, which, following the 2021 amendments to the Divorce Act, prioritizes child safety over parental contact and recognizes alienating behaviour as a form of coercive control. This comparison leads to the conclusion that the Brazilian challenge is not the absence of adequate legislation but rather the underuse of existing legal mechanisms. Addressing this gap requires the advancement of judicial and forensic practices to ensure the technically rigorous and systemically informed application of the law, in line with the Canadian model.

This cross-sectional study draws on the emotional climate of the family component of the tripartite model of the impact of the family context on children’s emotion regulation. It aims to explore the associations between emotion regulation and early memories of warmth and safeness, parental antipathy and neglect, and parental attachment. A representative sample of 8,622 participants (52.4% girls), with ages between 12 to 21 years old (M = 15.5, SD = 1.8), and self-report measures were used. In the multiple regression, parental trust, maternal neglect, the female gender, maternal antipathy, early memories of warmth and safeness, parental alienation, and parental communication were uniquely associated with emotion regulation (in decreasing order of explanatory strength). These results support the tripartite model of the impact of the family context on children’s emotion regulation by extending it to youth and emphasize the relevance of promoting emotionally intelligent and secure family contexts to increase the likelihood of youth’s developing adaptive emotion regulation strategies.

Parental alienation (PA), a form of family violence, has negative outcomes for children and parents. Despite being a generative field of science, some critics contest the validity of PA research. Utilizing the Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool and building upon the Harman et al. (2022) systematic review, a comprehensive assessment of 156 studies published up to March 2023 was conducted to examine the quality of empirical, peer-reviewed PA research. The findings indicate a consistent high level of scientific rigor in PA research, irrespective of when a study was published. The robust quality of PA research addresses several PA criticisms. By addressing concerns regarding the legitimacy of PA research meeting scientific rigor, evaluating the quality of empirical PA methodology will provide further insights regarding said scientific validity, further aiding the decision-making process for family court systems and policymakers.

Abstract Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is a controversial psychological condition characterized by a child’s unjustified hostility or rejection of one parent, often influenced by the other parent’s negative campaign against them. While PAS has been studied and debated for the decades, there is still no consensus among mental health professionals (MHPs) about its validity as a diagnosis. PAS can have severe consequences for children, including emotional distress, difficulties in forming healthy relationships, and long-term psychological issues. Treatment for PAS typically involves therapy for the child and both parents, with the goal of improving communication and reducing parental conflict. However, the effectiveness of these interventions remains a topic of ongoing research. We present this case of a 7-year-old child whose parent has alleged PAS, referred by the family court amidst custody battle. The authors have discussed the psychological assessment in the absence of any formal guidelines and other challenges emerging. The diagnosis and treatment of PAS are complex and require careful consideration of the child’s emotional well-being and unbiased approach of MHPs.