Interesting read...
Parental Alienation - Myths, Realities & Uncertainties: A Canadian Study, 1989-2008
Alienation cases have been receiving a great deal of public and professional attention in the past few months in Canada. As with so many issues in family law, there are two competing, gendered narratives offered to explain these cases. Men’s rights activists claim that mothers alienate children from their fathers as a way of seeking revenge for separation, and argue that judges are gender-biased against fathers in these cases. Feminists tend to dismiss alienation as a fabrication of abusive fathers who are trying to force contact with children who are frightened of them and to control the lives of their abused former partners. While there is some validity to both of these narratives, each also has significant mythical elements. The reality of these cases is often highly complex, with both fathers and mothers bearing significant responsibility for the situation.
Many high conflict separations are characterized by both parents denigrating their former partners and failing to support their children’s relationships with the other parent. While all children suffer from such parental behaviour, only a minority of children become “alienated” from a parent as a result of it. When a child resists visits with a parent, all children in the family and both parents must be assessed. Some cases involve emotionally abusive "pathological alienation," caused by the conduct of an alienating parent and resulting in a child having negative beliefs and feelings (such as anger, hatred or fear) that are not consistent with the child's actual experience with the rejected parent. In other cases, however, the child may be "justifiably estranged" due to conduct of the rejected parent, such as abuse or poor parenting. In some cases a child independently decides to disengage with a parent, perhaps due to tensions with a step parent.
complete study:
Parental Alienation - Myths, Realities & Uncertainties: A Canadian Study, 1989-2008 - By Nicholas Bala, Suzanne Hunt & Carrie McCarney -Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada - 12MAY09
Parental Alienation - Myths, Realities & Uncertainties: A Canadian Study, 1989-2008
Alienation cases have been receiving a great deal of public and professional attention in the past few months in Canada. As with so many issues in family law, there are two competing, gendered narratives offered to explain these cases. Men’s rights activists claim that mothers alienate children from their fathers as a way of seeking revenge for separation, and argue that judges are gender-biased against fathers in these cases. Feminists tend to dismiss alienation as a fabrication of abusive fathers who are trying to force contact with children who are frightened of them and to control the lives of their abused former partners. While there is some validity to both of these narratives, each also has significant mythical elements. The reality of these cases is often highly complex, with both fathers and mothers bearing significant responsibility for the situation.
Many high conflict separations are characterized by both parents denigrating their former partners and failing to support their children’s relationships with the other parent. While all children suffer from such parental behaviour, only a minority of children become “alienated” from a parent as a result of it. When a child resists visits with a parent, all children in the family and both parents must be assessed. Some cases involve emotionally abusive "pathological alienation," caused by the conduct of an alienating parent and resulting in a child having negative beliefs and feelings (such as anger, hatred or fear) that are not consistent with the child's actual experience with the rejected parent. In other cases, however, the child may be "justifiably estranged" due to conduct of the rejected parent, such as abuse or poor parenting. In some cases a child independently decides to disengage with a parent, perhaps due to tensions with a step parent.
complete study:
Parental Alienation - Myths, Realities & Uncertainties: A Canadian Study, 1989-2008 - By Nicholas Bala, Suzanne Hunt & Carrie McCarney -Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada - 12MAY09
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