A Critical Analysis of Parental Alienation Syndrome and Its Admissibility in the Family Court

@article{Walker2004ACA,
  title={A Critical Analysis of Parental Alienation Syndrome and Its Admissibility in the Family Court},
  author={Lenore E. Walker and Kristi L. Brantley and Justin A. Rigsbee},
  journal={Journal of Child Custody},
  year={2004},
  volume={1},
  pages={47 - 74}
}
Abstract Over the past three decades, parental alienation syndrome (PAS) has been proposed to explain behaviors by a child who refuses to spend time with a parent and actually denigrates that parent within the context of a child custody dispute. Although some mental health professionals and child custody evaluators, attorneys, and judges have been quick to accept and admit PAS as evidence in these disputes, there has been no consistent empirical or clinical evidence that PAS exists or that the… 
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41 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
3
Background Citations
11
Results Citations
3

41 Citations

A Historical Perspective on Parental Alienation Syndrome and Parental Alienation

Claims of parental alienation syndrome (PAS) and parental alienation (PA) have come to dominate custody litigation, especially where abuse is alleged. Although much psychological and legal literature…

The Lingering Debate Over the Parental Alienation Syndrome Phenomenon

Both sides of the argument are presented and the PAS debate lingers on and remains unsettled and not enough rigorous experimentation has been done to prove once and for all that PAS is a diagnosable phenomenon.

Examining the validity of parental alienation syndrome

This commentary briefly reviews past critiques of PAS and describes several additional problems that have occurred with the use of this construct.

Examining Parental Alienation in Child Custody Cases: A Survey of Mental Health and Legal Professionals

An Internet survey was conducted to examine the views of mental health and legal professionals about parental alienation (PA) in child custody cases. Findings from 448 respondents revealed much…

Misogynistic cultural argument in parental alienation versus child sexual abuse cases

ABSTRACT This article argues that major advances in parental alienation (PA) theory, since its inception as the Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), have not consistently been applied in custody…

Parental Alienation in U.S. Courts, 1985 to 2018

Courts have been dealing with alienating behaviors in high conflict family litigation for hundreds of years. Experts in the behavioral sciences have been writing about mothers and fathers…

Parental Alienation Syndrome and Parental Alienation: A Research Review

VAWnet is a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. The willingness to pathologize capable mothers even extends to mothers’ “warm, involved” parenting -which they assert can…

Parental Alienation in Light of Attachment Theory

Abstract Few ideas have captured the attention and charged the emotions of the public, of mental health and legal professionals as thoroughly as the concept of parental alienation and Gardner's…

Safety First

The first three steps of the six-step Safety First Model are presented, designed to assist the legal and psychological professions to focus on the priorities on the safety of children exposed to domestic violence.

A Qualitative Study of Child Custody Evaluators’ Beliefs and Opinions

Practices in child custody evaluations have created controversy and debate among professionals. Semi-structured interviews of 10 highly experienced child custody evaluators were analyzed to gain an…

References

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Parental Alienation Syndrome vs. Parental Alienation: Which Diagnosis Should Evaluators Use in Child-Custody Disputes?

Children who have been programmed by one parent to be alienated from the other parent are commonly seen in the context of child-custody disputes. Such programming is designed to strengthen the…

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Douglas Darnall is a practicing licensed psychologist and the CEO of PsyCare, Inc., an outpatient psychiatric clinic in Youngstown, Ohio. He is the author of DIVORCE CASUALTIES:…
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