WHEN A CHILD REJECTS A PARENT: WORKING WITHTHE INTRACTABLE RESIST/REFUSE DYNAMICMarjorie Gans Walters and Steven Friedlander

What’s the Research Say?2020 Survey of Resist and/or Refuse Dynamics• Collaboration between National Council of Juvenile andFamily Court Judges (NCJFCJ) and the Association of Familyand Conciliation Courts (AFCC) in 2020• Represents the largest sample of responses on this topic.Over 500 pages of comments were submitted by participants.• Aim – to ‘take the temperature’ of the professional cultures.• Most participants indicated receiving no more than 4 hours oftraining on resist/refuse dynamics• Most (+85%) were unaware of tools available to differentiaterealistic estrangement from alienating behavior by a parent15Saini, 2021Knowns1516Saini, 2021Knowns16

Washington State PsychologicalAssociationAlaska Psychological Association2021 NW Psychological Fall ConventionOctober 15-17, 2021

Parental Alienation

Dr. Amy Baker et al. (2011), Brief Report on Parental Alienation SurveySurveyconductedat2010meetingoftheAssociationofFamilyandConciliationCourts(AFCC).300attendeescompletedsurveyregardingPA.98%endorsed,“Doyouthinkthatsomechildrenaremanipulatedbyoneparenttoirrationallyandunjustifiablyrejecttheotherparent?”

Proposal for Parental Alienation Relational Problemto be Included in“Other Conditions That May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention”in DSM-5-TRSubmitted to DSM-5-TR Steering CommitteeNovember xx, 2022Submitted by William Bernet, M.D., and Amy J. L. Baker, Ph.D.

Prevalence of adults who are the targets of parental alienating behaviors and their impact

The child’ssense of disconnection and inauthentic realityare reinforced when alienated parents repeat their false narratives to third partiesas part of their alienationcampaign

Losses Experienced by Children Alienated from a ParentJennifer J. Harman, Mandy L. Matthewson, Amy J.L. Baker

What did we find? Of the more than 200 empirical studies we reviewed, 40% were published since 2016. This means that many of the reviews published before 2016—such as the ones critics rely on to argue that parental alienation research is in its “infancy”—are hopelessly outdated. Our study leaves no doubt that parental alienation is a valid concept supported by a robust and well-developed scientific literature. This literature sports several hallmarks of a maturing scientific field. First, the number of studies is increasing each year. Second, the type of studies increasingly favors quantitative (e.g., statistical analysis) over qualitative (e.g., descriptive) methods. Third, the studies increasingly test hypotheses and situate the design and results in a theoretical and explanatory framework.

Developmental Psychology and the Scientific Status of Parental AlienationJennifer J. Harman 1 , Richard A. Warshak 2 , Demosthenes Lorandos 3 , and Matthew J. Florian 41 Department of Psychology, Colorado State University2 Independent Practice, Richardson, Texas, United States3 Psychlaw.net, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States4 Eris Enterprise, LLC, Fort Collins, Colorado, United State

Demosthenes Lorandos, William Bernet & Richard Sauber (2013), Parental Alienation: Handbook for Mental Health and Legal Pro-fessionals

Journal of Family Medicine and Disease Prevention