An Objective Measure of Splitting in Parental Alienation: The Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire

Both clinicians and forensic practitioners should distinguish parental alienation (rejection of a parent without legitimate justification) from other reasons for contact refusal. Alienated children—who were not abused—often engage in splitting and lack ambivalence with respect to the rejected parent...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of forensic sciences Vol. 63; no. 3; pp. 776 - 783
Main Authors Bernet, William, Gregory, Nilgun, Reay, Kathleen M., Rohner, Ronald P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2018
Subjects
Acceptance
Adolescent
Case-Control Studies
Child
Child Abuse
Child abuse & neglect
child psychiatry
Children
children of divorce
Divorce
Family Conflict
Female
Forensic engineering
forensic science
Humans
Male
Parent-Child Relations
parental acceptance–rejection questionnaire
parental alienation
Parents
Parents & parenting
Rejection
Rejection (Psychology)
Social Alienation
Splitting
Surveys and Questionnaires
splitting
forensic science
children of divorce
parental acceptance-rejection questionnaire
parental alienation
child psychiatry
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Both clinicians and forensic practitioners should distinguish parental alienation (rejection of a parent without legitimate justification) from other reasons for contact refusal. Alienated children—who were not abused—often engage in splitting and lack ambivalence with respect to the rejected parent; children who were maltreated usually perceive the abusive parent in an ambivalent manner. The purpose of this study was to assess the usefulness of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) in identifying and quantifying the degree of splitting, which may assist in diagnosing parental alienation. Results showed that severely alienated children engaged in a high level of splitting, by perceiving the preferred parent in extremely positive terms and the rejected parent in extremely negative terms. Splitting was not manifested by the children in other family groups. The PARQ may be useful for both clinicians and forensic practitioners in evaluating children of divorced parents when there is a concern about the possible diagnosis of parental alienation.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0022-1198
1556-4029
DOI:10.1111/1556-4029.13625