Apart from the eight symptoms of PAS, a number of research scholars include the following symptoms observed in an alienated child:  Feelings of hostility and other complex emotional symptoms (  Gardner, 1989; Moore, Ordway and Francis, 2012;Moore, Ordway and Francis, 2013 )  The mirror without a face the assessment of parental alienation among children of high conflict divorces. Moore and Ordway,( 2013 ).

Bernet et al ( 2017 ), offered a recent explanation for the child’s denial behavior. We consider splitting to be a maladaptive mechanism by which children protect themselves from the uncomfortable feelings of cognitive dissonance, that is, from anxiety caused by ongoing parental conflict. When there is a continual warfare between the mother and father, children often find it difficult to maintain affection for both parents at the same time. They typically resolve the dissonance by the mechanism of splitting. This is gravitating to an enmeshed relationship with one parent and strongly rejecting the other parent.

Within this dysfunctional system, a child’s critical thinking is impaired. They experience a cognitive dissonance. Unable to reconcile their actual experience of a loved parent with the contrasting, overt and implicit contradicting information received from the other loving parent. In the often fragile period where a child is managing to maintain some direct time with both parents, their behavior may vary markedly from one situation to another. ( Waldron and Jonas, 1996. ) They may be comfortable, relaxed, and affectionate when with a parent, but may become rejecting of that parent when in the proximity of the more favored parent. In order to achieve some equilibrium, the child is driven, usually unconsciously, to to reduce this psychological distress by rejecting the least vulnerable or fearsome parent. to reduce

this psychological distress by rejecting the least vulnerable or fearsome parent. This rejection enables a child to present on the surface as coping and functioning well.

Some children feel such a strong sense of obligation to the alienating parent that they make disparaging comments about the targeted parent, even when they do not agree. Gardner, (1989. Making these disclosures creates a sense of cognitive dissonance for alienated children and results in strong feelings of anxiety and confusion ( More at al.,2013. )

When the DSM-5 was in development, there was a proposal to include parental alienation disorder as a new diagnosis. In response, members of the DSM-5 task force never said that they doubted the reality or the importance of parental alienation. However, they concluded that parental alienation “ did not meet the standard definition of a mental disorder, that is, the requirement that a disorder exists residing within an

individual ”  ( Letter from D.A.. Reiger, January 24, 2012 )

Task Force members said that parental alienation should be considered an example of a relational problem because it involves a disturbance in the child’s relationship with one or both parents ( 2016 ).

“ The term I prefer to use is parental alienation syndrome. I have introduced this term to refer to a disturbance in which children are obsessed with deprecation and criticism of a parent — denigration that is unjustified and or exaggerated. The notion that such children are merely “ brainwashed “ is narrow. The term brainwashing implies that one parent is systematically and consciously programming the child to denigrate the other parent. The concept of the parental alienation syndrome includes the brainwashing component but is much more inclusive. It includes not only conscious but subconscious and unconscious factors within the parent that contribute to the child’s alienation. Furthermore, (, and this is extremely important ),. it includes factors that arise within the child independent of the parental contributions that contribute to the development of the syndrome. Gardner, R. (1985 ) Recent trends in divorce and custody litigation.

The American Educational Research Association, AERA, in collaboration with the American Psychological Association, APA, sets standards for psychological tests. AERA, APA, (1999 ). These standards require evidence that the test actually measures what it is intended to measure. The tests of parental alienation that are in development and the uses of some existing tests fail to meet this requirement, though there are a few promising exceptions. American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, National Council on Measurement in Education, AERA, APA, 1999, Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, Washington, D.C., American Educational Research Association How far has parental alienation research progressed towards achieving scientific validity?  ( M. Simring Mishman, 2019 ).

In reference to the Baker Alienation Questionnaire, BAQ, Baker et al. ( 2012 ), and the Baker Strategies Questionnaire, BSQ, neither meets the AERA or APA test standards. Without any independent measure of parenting behavior there was no way to determine whether the BAQ scores were or were not associated with actual parenting quality, and without knowing that, the BAQ cannot claim to measure irrational perceptions of parents. To date, the BAQ does not contribute to establishing construct validity for parental alienation.

The BASQ ( Baker & Ben Ami, 2011; Baker & Verrocchio, 2014 ) is a 20-item paper and pencil questionnaire that assesses how frequently adult children report their parents engaged in parental alienation. Baker and Verrochio, ( 2014 ) report that the measure has good internal consistency, which means that it is reliable. The items have content validity, that is, they all describe parent behaviors that have been defined as parental alienation. However, this test also has not been validated against any independent measures of parenting behavior, and so it cannot discriminate between parental alienation, abuse, or bad parenting. Some of the items could clearly be related to protective parenting, ( e.g. saying a parent was unsafe ). Others are ambiguous and could be interpreted as parenting in the context of reasonably suspected abuse. (e.g. making negative comments, limiting contact, discomfort at the other parent, encouraging reliance on him/herself ). Until the BSQ is tested against credible independent evidence about abuse or bad parenting, it cannot contribute to construct validity for parental alienation.

Faulty use of the Parental Alienation Rejection Questionnaire, PARQ. In PA theory, the parent is the agent and the child is the object. In parental alienation, the child is the agent and the parent is the object. These differences are clear on inspection of the PARQ. There is no item on the PARQ that assesses any of the behavioral criteria proposed for parental alienation. The park cannot be a test for parental alienation.

Promising parental alienation test development, the Roland Parental Alienation Scale, RPAS. ( Roland’s, 2018 ) is a methodologically more sophisticated approach to developing a parental alienation measure. It assesses allegedly alienated parents’ perceptions of their children’s behavior towards them. It tests convergent validity by comparing RPAS scores with a parental alienation survey developed by Baker and Darnell, ( 2007 ). However, this is inadequate because the reliability and validity of that survey is not reported.

Parental alienation advocates assert that they have amassed sufficient evidence to support an International consensus that PA exists and can be reliably identified. ( See Bernet, ( 2010 ), Appendix D.E. for evidence that advocates claims support parental alienation ). The evidence consists largely of clinical examples and expert opinions. Saini, Johnston, Fidler, and Bala, ( 2012, 2016 ). Nevertheless, despite its volume and despite claims to the contrary on these and other sources, Clawar & Rivlin, 2013; Dunn 2013; Lorandos, Bernet, & Sauber, 2013 ),this kind of evidence intrinsically cannot identify parental alienation as a distinct phenomenon than can be differentiated from other similar appearing phenomena ( MIshman S., 2019 ).

As others have confirmed ( Saini et al., 2012, 2016 ), the bulk of evidence for parental alienation today consists of reports by self-proclaimed victims and their allies. This article explains why a consensus among victims and their allies does not produce scientific validity. The article explains how scientific validity turns a descriptive concept into a scientific construct. Parental alienation is not yet a scientific construct ( Mishman M. 2019 ).

Mishman, ( 2019 ), states, “ To support a claim that the examples drawn from voices of victims are examples of parental alienation and no other cause of parent rejection in these examples cannot be explained by abuse or poor parenting. “

Some research scholars have offered that research designs in parental alienation studies have serious, even fatal, methodological flaws ( Saini, M, Johnston J.R., Fidler B.J., and Bala N. 2012 ). These include inadequate assessment instruments, biased selection of subjects, lack of adequate comparison groups, inadequate statistical analysis, and circular reasoning. All these flaws are obstacles to achieving construct validity.

Mishman, ( 2019 ) “  In other words, to identify parental alienation reliably, the behaviors that define it must be specific to parental alienation and cannot overlap with behaviors that have other causes. “

Also in Harmon, et al ( 2022 ), there are several citations that refer to “ uncertainty reduction theory “ used to explain the child’s rejection. When people lack confidence in a relationship’s future, they engage in behaviors to reduce uncertainty and unpredictability, such as looking for information to explain the deterioration of a relationship. “  Berger, C.R. Kellerman, N. : To ask, or not to ask, is that a question? ( 1983 );  Powell K.A., Afifi, TD.  Uncertainty management and adoptees ambiguous loss of their birth parents ( 2005 ).

Searches for corroborating evidence unbalanced by affirmative searches for disconfirming evidence risk confirmatory bias.( Drozd et al. 2013;  Gould and Martindale. 2007;  Zapf and Dror, 2017 ).

In hybrid alienation, the behaviors of both parents contribute to the alienated position of a child. ( Burrill, 2006. Fidler et al., 2012;  Rand et al., 2005 ).

Criticism of parental alienation theory has led to multiple definitions of PAS symptomatology. At least six researchers or teams of researchers have independently identified children from separated or divorced families who were alienated from one parent for no rational reason. Wallerstein and Kelly, Johnston and Roseby, Gardner, Kopetsky, Kopetsky, Rand and Rand, Clawar & Rivlin, Kelly and Johnston, and Bernet. von Boch, Galhau, W. Induced Parental Alienation, a Serious Form of Child Psychological Abuse, ( 2020 ).

Some critics have argued that children are endangered when transferred to the care of the alienated parent, Bruch, ( 2001 ), and are traumatized by their being forced to unify with the alienated parent in the programs designed to treat severe parental alienation. Unfortunately, such critics have not provided empirical support for these claims or used the terms in a way that meet accepted definitions of trauma that have been established in the scientific and clinical literature, ( e.g. accidents, child or sexual abuse, neglect. ) Bruch, C.S. ( 2001 ), Parental Alienation Syndrome and Parental Alienation:  Getting it Wrong in Child Custody Cases.

Identity fusion theory helps explain why alienated children strenuously support and defend the alienating parent, join the parent in denigrating the alienated parent, make false allegations of abuse and pressure siblings to do the same. Identity fusion is characterized by pervasive feelings of oneness within a group that blurs boundaries between the individual and others and parental alienation behaviors create this type of fused identity. Consequently, group members, particularly genetically related kin, are motivated to do as much for the group as for themselves, feel obliged to help and defend each other, and will endorse and enact extreme pro-group behaviors. Losses experienced by children alienated by a parent ( Jennifer J. Harmon, Mandy L. Mathewson, Amy J.L. Baker, 2021 )

In parental alienation, the child’s contact refusal lacks legitimate or rational justification, but instead is driven by the false belief that the rejected parent is evil, dangerous, or not worthy of his time and affection. Estrangement is considered a rational response to an unhealthy situation ( avoiding a relationship with an abusive parent ), whereas alienation is usually a maladaptive mental condition, extremely oppositional behavior due to a false belief. Child affected by parental relationship distress. Bernet et al, ( 2016 ).

Some research invoking false memories in alienation cases have relied on Freud’s ( 1923 ) reference to confabulation. Freud S., in The Ego and the ID ( 1897/1902 ).

Leading proponents of parental alienation theory have posited children who are victims of PA  have false beliefs or developed false memories about the rejected parent and that this drives their contact refusal behavior.  Bernet et al. ( 2016 )

One leading proponent of Gardner’s theory of PAS, Baker, A.J.L., has compared the child’s alignment with an alienating parent to belonging to a cult. In search of research to support this perspective, parental alienation proponents have linked it to identity fusion theory. ( Gomez A. Fraser, W.T;  Talaifa, Brennan S.M; Swan. W.B. Identity Fusion, Extreme Pro-Group Behavior and the Path to Defusion ( 2015 ).

Alienated children look for any reason, often trivial, to justify the rejection of the alienated parent and will use ineffective strategies to reduce their uncertainty and cope with the loss induced by the alienating parent, such as preemptive obstruction, ending the relationship. Baker, A.J.L., Eichler, A. The linkage between parental alienation behaviors and child alienation. ( 2016 ).

Turning Points For Families ( TPFF)  recommends that the no contact period between the child and the alienating parent remain in effect until two conditions are met. The child and alienated parent have successfully recovered their prior positive relationship and the alienating parent has demonstrated a genuine commitment and willingness to support the relationship between the child and the rejected or alienated parent. Evaluation of the Turning Points for Families program for severely alienated children, Harmon, Saunders, Afifi ( 2021. )

Although deviant behavior in children and adolescents is compatible with PAS symptomatology, there are no studies in parental alienation referring to deviant behavior between the child and the parent they reject. Hirschi & Gottfredson, ( 1990 ) , a general theory of crime.

Parental alienation has failed to integrate that a child may be unable to adequately respond to the demands and expectations from a targeted parent due to a psychological refractory period. Klapp, et al., ( 2019 ). The bottleneck of the psychological refractory period effect involves timing of response initiation rather than response selection.

Dissociative disorder patients may be vulnerable to becoming highly ruminative and fixated when experiencing distressing emotional states, resulting in an inability to engage in other tasks.

For trauma survivors, rumination is conceptualized as a chronic and repetitive fixation on trauma and its consequences, which may include PTSD symptoms featuring assimilated and over-accommodated beliefs about themselves, the world, and the causes and consequences of their traumatic experiences. ( Brown, Hetzel-Riggen, Mitchell and Bruce, 2018; Michael Halligan, Clark and Ehlers, 2007 ).

In many cases, rumination can serve as a mechanism of cognitive avoidance, such that it allows the individual to avoid processing the details of their trauma by magnify-ing less relevant details or distractions. ( Elwood, Hahn, Olatunji, and Williams, 2009; LoSavio, Dillon and Resick, 2017 ). Such ruminative type behaviors can be a risk and maintenance factor for trauma-related symptoms, distress, and impairment. Brown et al., 2018;  Elwood et al., 2009. ) As a part of the treatment for trauma and dissociation, providers may find it useful to teach specific containment strategies in order to assist patients in accepting their emotions and experiences while also not becoming ‘ stuck ‘ in them. ( Chu, 2011 ).

Developing more flexible and balanced skills in attending to, containing, and moving on from moments of difficult emotions could buffer dissociative disorder patients from becoming debilitated by their emotions in other domains of their life,(  e.g. ability to work or engage in daily tasks ).

Reunification therapy moves at a glacial pace or fails when children are severely alienated and live primarily or exclusively with the parent who does not effectively support and may not value the child’s relationship with the other parent ( Dunne and Hedrick 1994;  Fidler and Bala, 2010; Garber, 2015; Lampel, 1986; Lowenstein,

2006; Rand and Rand 2006; Rand, Rand and Kopetsky, 2005; Sullivan, Ward and Deutsch 2010; Warshak 2003, 2015B, Weir and Sturge 2006. ) Unless the rejected parent gives up active efforts to heal the relationship with the children, the failure of court-ordered therapy returns the parents to court. At that point, the court’s primary custodial options of the alienated children are as follows.( a. ). Placement with the favored parent ( favored by the children ), accompanied by another round of court-ordered psychotherapy. ( b. ) . Placement with the rejected parent. ( c. ) . Placement with neither parent, or ( d. ) . Placement with the favored parent with no scheduled contacts with the rejected parent. Warshak, ( 2010c, 2015a ).

When the court awards custody to the rejected parent, this decision usually follows a prolonged period of time in which the favored parent violated court orders with impunity and with their children, acted as if they were beyond the reach of the court with respect to complying with the court-ordered parenting plan. ( Kelly, 2010 ) . In most of these cases, the court also determines that the alienation reflects the ongoing influence of the favored parent on the children’s negative attitudes about the rejected parent. To maximize the chances of the children and rejected parent healing their relationship, the court may temporarily suspend the children’s contact with the parent whom they favor, ( usually for about 90 days ), hoping that a no-contact order will shield the children from negative influences that may retard their progress and will motivate the children to comply with the court’s intentions. ( Warshak, 2015a ).

Reunification therapy has a poor track record with severely alienated children who refuse all contact with the rejected parent, who repeatedly leave the rejected parent’s home during the scheduled time together, and the parent with whom the child is aligned is not genuinely and strongly fostering and supporting the child’s reunification with the rejected parent ( Clawar and Rivlin, 2013; Fidler and Ballard, 2010 ). Unfortunately, such court-ordered therapy often continues to allow the children to refuse contact with the rejected parent, even as the therapist works to overcome the family’s problems. Children who have been permitted to regulate whether and under what circumstances they will spend time in each parent’s care bring a sense of empowerment into the reunification therapist’s office.

The children and their favored parent cooperate with treatment as long as the therapist agrees that these children have valid reasons for rejecting a parent, shows empathy for the children’s antipathy to repairing the relationship, or never challenges the children’s negative views of the rejected parent. ( Johnston, et al., 2001). Such cooperation evaporates, though, when the therapist resolves that the status quo is untenable and believes that though, when the therapist resolves that the status quo is untenable and believes that the child should resume a positive relationship with the rejected parent.

Although the social science literature emphasizes the importance of contact between children and the rejected parent to help correct children’s distorted negative perceptions, contact alone often is not enough. The judge or the parent receiving custody may consider a specialized program tp help the child accept the court orders, and to help the parent and child heal their relationship. Research on the outcomes of such programs is limited. ( Saini, Johnston, Fidler and Bala 2016;  Walters and Friedlander 2016 ).

Some programs reported effectiveness with families in the earlier and mild stages of alienation, but no success with cases that involved repeated violations of court orders, failure of past specialized interventions, alienating behaviors considered to be emotionally abusive or harmful, inability or unwillingness of a favored parent to modify alienating behavior, parents with severe personality disorders and risks of child abduction ( Ward, Deutsch and Sullivan, 2017 ). Thus courts and professionals need information on programs that can effectively help children in the most severe cases.

But faced with an alienated child’s or teen’s threats to defy a custody decision determined by the court to best serve the child’s interests, many judges, child custody evaluators, and guardian ad litem’s feel stymied about how to resolve the impasse. Warshak, R. ( 2018  ).

Children who experience parental alienation often present with feelings of anger, hostility, and other complex emotional symptoms. ( Gardner, 1989. Moore, Ordway,and Francis, 2012;  Moore, Ordway and Francis 2013 ). They may also have under-lying feelings of confusion and pain but conceal these emotions from others. ( Fidler et al., 2013;  Gardner 1985;  Moore et al. 2013 ).

Some alienated children categorically deny that there was ever anything positive about the relationship they had with the targeted parent. Gardner, ( 1985 ).

Gardner, R. ( 1985 ). Alienated children exhibit a lack of ambivalence about the alienating parent, demonstrating an automatic reflexive idealized support. That parent is perceived as perfect, while the other is perceived as wholly flawed. If an alienated child is asked to identify just just one negative aspect of the alienating parent, he or she will probably draw a complete blank. This presentation is in contrast to the fact that most children have mixed feelings about even the best of parents and can usually talk about each parent as having both good and bad qualities.

When confronted with evidence of an affectionate relationship, such as greeting cards, photographs, and family videos. They dismiss the evidence with the claim that they were only pretending or that they were coerced into acting happy.  Parental Alienation, overview, management, intervention, and practice tips. Warshak R. ( 2015 ).

Woodall and her colleagues, ( 2019 ) refer to betrayal trauma theory and explained it as follows: “ In the face of abuse and neglect, especially at the hands of those they love, children need enough psychological distance from what is happening to avoid being overwhelmed and survived psychologically intact. Providing some modicum of self-esteem and hope for the future requires children to doubt or disremember their experience and to disown the bad victim child to whom this has happened as ‘not me’.

Who is this fact sheet for?

Potentially traumatic events can be single occurrences, chronic and repetitive over

time, or complex in nature, meaning more than one type of potentially traumatic event has been experienced and may include:

“ parental separation, abandonment, and or alienation, mental illness, and or substance abuse in the home. “

Goldberg & Associates has confirmed in email communications with leadership at the ISSTD that the word “ alienation “  does in fact refer to the term “ parental alienation.”

Parental alienation research has promulgated that alienating parents employ coercive control. Kruk E. ( 2018 ). Parental alienation is a form of emotional child abuse.

Janina Fisher speaks of alienation from the self as follows;

“ That good child might be precociously mature, sweet and helpful, perfectionistic, self-critical or quiet and shy, but most importantly he or she has a way to be acceptable and safer in an unsafe world. Splitting or fragmenting in this way is an ingenious and adaptive survival strategy, but one with a steep price. To ensure that the rejected, not me, child is kept out of the way, ( i.e. out of consciousness ), requires that long after traumatic events are over, individuals must rely upon dissociation, denial, and or self-hatred for enforcing the disconnection. Fischer ( 2017 ).  Core thinking induced psychological splitting in children affected by parental alienation. Woodall K. ( 2019 ).

Parental alienating behaviors alter the child’s beliefs, perceptions, and memories of the alienating parent. This corruption of reality is accomplished through systematic reframing of the other parent’s intentions such that even innocuous behaviors are recast as indicators of untrustworthiness. Because there is often a grain of truth, the child does not feel manipulated.

Gradually, the alienating parent erodes the child’s critical thinking skills and ability to trust themselves, which results in internal working models of the self and others as unsafe and unloving, and leads to feelings of disconnection from internal and external experiences. The child’s sense of disconnection and inauthentic reality are reinforced when alienated parents repeat their false narratives to third parties as part of their alienation campaign ( Baker, AJL, 2007; Baker AJL, Ben AMI, N. 2011; Baker, AJL,

Chamber J 2011; Bentley, C. Matthewson, 2011 ).

Psychological alignment causes childhood psychopathology which is created in the weakened permeable boundaries between the child and the parent to whom they are aligned. In these circumstances, the use of defensive splitting to disremember the parts of the self which have engaged in the murder of the relationship with the rejected parent, both internally and externally, in my view, creates dissociative splitting, which requires treatment in therapeutic terms, Woodall, K. ( 2019 ).

Dissociative splitting, which is the core of what we are working with in alienated children is described by Janina Fisher former instructor and supervisor at Bessel Van Der Kolk’s Trauma Centre as follows – ( page 2 )

“ Through that neurobiological lens, what appears clinically as ‘stuckness ‘ and resistance, untreatable diagnosis or character disorder behavior simply represent how an individual’s mind and body adapted to a dangerous world in which the only protection was the very same person who endangered him or her. “

In my experience that which we are dealing with when we are working with alienated children is traumatic or dissociative splitting. We see it in alienated children in the here and now and in adults who were alienated in childhood. Janina Fisher goes on to tell us, in the face of abuse and neglect, especially at the hands of those they love, children need enough psychological distance from what is happening to avoid being overwhelmed and survive psychologically intact. Providing some modicum of self-esteem and hope for the future requires children to doubt or disremember their experience and to disown the bad victim child to whom this has happened as ‘ not me ‘.

This is child abuse. This is a child abuse issue which has lain dormant for decades. It is a defensive response to the psychological splitting as a defence and regardless of how we diagnose that, the lasting legacy for the child is, in my view, traumatic splitting, which leads to dissociation and fragmentation of the self, as described by the former instructor and supervisor of the Bessel Van Der Kolk Trauma Center.

It is my view that in doing so, alienated children are suffering from dissociative splitting due to the horrific experience of having to reject a parent they deeply love. This split, which is in the child first, creating a false sense of persona, which can live with what has happened to continue to function in the world, is then projected at the parents as a splitting of the parents into wholly good and wholly bad, as set out in Johnston and Kelly’s reformulation of parental alienation syndrome.

The absence of a parent has meaning over and above the absence of opportunities and resources, particularly when the child is manipulated to falsely believe that a parent is unloving, unsafe and unavailable. When the child feels they are damaged by their association and thereby symbolically dissociated from the alienated parent, this action negatively impacts their self-esteem and they suppress their memories of love and affection regarding the alienated parent. connection with their own truth and sense of self, this creates anxiety and depression and can make the child less amenable to remaining connected with the alienated parent. By losing the alienated parent-child relationship, the child becomes completely dependent on the alienating parent and they lose their own identity, childhood and extended family connections in the process.

Alienated children are not allowed to experience or express their perceived sense of loss of the alienated parent-child relationship. undermine the attachment by convincing the child that they oppose it true about their other parent which affects how the child feels about themselves, the other parent, and relationship more generally.

The authors have found the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children, Briere, (1996 ), to be a useful instrument when conducting assessments with children involving a high-conflict divorce.

The Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children, TSCC, is a self-report instrument measuring post-traumatic stress and other psychological symptoms ages of 8 and 16. Brière, ( 1996 ). The TSCC is reported to have high internal consistency, reliability and concurrent validity. Briere, ( 1996 ). Although there is little to no research with children involved in high conflict divorces, the authors have found the instrument to be highly useful with this population.

The TSCC has scales that measure anxiety, depression, anger, post-traumatic stress and dissociation. Briere, ( 1996 ). There are also two validity scales that measure under response and hyper-response Briere, ( 1996 ). The under-response scale indicates that the child has a tendency toward denial, a general pattern of under endorsement or a need to appear unusually symptom-free. The hyper-responding scale suggests that the child generally over responds to test items, has a specific need to appear overly symptomatic, or is highly overwhelmed by traumatic stress. The authors have found the under-response and hyper-response skills to be particularly helpful among alienated children.

In fact, some alienated children have a tendency to excessively endorse items due to their prior exposure to negative messages about the other parent, as well as their feelings of obligation to respond in a way that the alienating parents would approve. There are other alienated children who are prone to under-response. Their lack of item endorsement could be due to a lack of insight about their emotions or extreme guardedness about the potential consequences that could result from expressing their inner emotions. In either case, counselors can use the under response and hyper response skills to gain awareness about the child’s emotional state to better determine the 1996. Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children, T.S.C.C. Professional Manual, Odessa, Texas, Psychological Assessment Resources.

Children who are experiencing parental alienation need to be involved in individual and family counseling to prevent emotional and behavior difficulties from occurring, especially knowing that such problems could otherwise continue into adulthood.In order for treatment to be successful, counselors must first be able to identify those children who are most at risk. more research is needed to determine if existing instruments like the trauma symptom checklist or the Baker parental alienation syndrome questionnaire Baker ( 2010 ) cited by Fidler et al. ( 2013 ) can be effective in identifying children who are experiencing parental alienation and in determining the severity of their symptoms. There is also a need for the development of a reliable and valid assessment measure that is specific to the issues pertinent to alienated children.

Baker, AJL, ( 2010 ). Adult recall of parental alienation in a community sample prevalence and associations with psychological maltreatment.

In another reference to dissociation. Ben Ami, N., Baker, A.J.L. The Long-Term Correlates of Childhood Exposure to Parental Alienation or Adult Self-Sufficiency and well-being. ( 2012 ) – Loyalty conflict is not apparent and allegations are repeated in a matter-of-fact, detached and frequent manner. Parental alienation or justified estrangement. Assessing a child’s resistance to a parent in the UK.  Witcombe, Sue, ( 2017 ).