An Overview of Parental Alienation from the Framework of Ecological Systems Theory

Abstract

Divorce, in brief, can be described as the legal dissolution of marriage between the spouses. High-conflict divorce or parental separation, the children might be able to develop an alienation state towards the targeted parent because of a parent’s denigration against the other one through his/her words, behaviors, and attitudes with rage/anger, and by being precluded from the rights of personal contact with that parent. Literature on divorce, parental alienation (parental alienation syndrome) is conceptualized as a dynamic process resulting in forming a strong alliance with one of the childrens’ parents (alienating parent) and the denial of communication with the other parent (the targeted or the alienated parent) without any legitimate reason especially in high-conflict divorce suits and It is indicated that the process is a type of emotional abuse for the children. The goal of this paper is to review the dynamic interactions of the factors which are considered effective during the parental alienation process from the ecological system theory perspective. The general specifications of the parental alienation concept are emphasized and the common effects of the alienation on the children with the risk factors that might affect the parental alienation process in each system level (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem) are examined.

Keywords

• divorce
• high-conflict divorce
• parental alienation
• parental alienation syndrome
• ecological system perspective
• child