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Parental alienation syndrome

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Parental alienation syndrome (abbreviated as PAS) is a controversial syndrome formulated by Richard A. Gardner in which a child, on an ongoing basis belittles and insults a parent without justification, due to the indoctrination of one parent. PAS is believed to arise partly due to a child custody dispute, and in part as a result of the child's own behavior. PAS has been extensively criticized by legal and mental health scholars for lacking scientific validity and reliability. PAS is not admissable in courts in the United Kingdom, but has appeared in some family court disputes in the United States and Canada.

Overview

The initial research on PAS was performed primarily by the originator of the theory, Richard A. Gardner, who self-published most of this work using his own company. Gardner defined PAS in a 1985 journal as "…a disorder that arises primarily in the context of child-custody disputes. Its primary manifestation is the child’s campaign of denigration against the parent, a campaign that has no justification. The disorder results from the combination of indoctrinations by the alienating parent and the child’s own contributions to the vilification of the alienated parent" also stating that the indoctrination may be deliberate or unconscious on the part of the alienating parent.

PAS is thought to apply only in situations where there is no actual abuse or neglect. In cases of actual abuse or neglect, Gardner considered parental alienation the appropriate term because the child's alienation is justified.). Gardner divided PAS according to severity, with mild and moderate cases requiring family therapy with the most severe cases requiring the alienating parent and child be separated (also suggesting the alienating parent may be incarcerated). Researchers initially believed that mothers were the alienating parent in 90% of these cases, but Garner and others stated have stated that fathers and mothers are equally likely to be the alienating parent. Gardner and others state that children have been harmed by PAS, and that legal acceptance of its evaluation could be used to identify and help these children.

PAS is not recognized by the American Medical Association or the American Psychiatric Association, and is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The American Psychological Association declined to indicate a position on PAS, but raised concerns over its lack of supporting data and how the term is used. The APA's 1996 Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family expressed concern that custody evaluators use PAS as a means of giving custody to fathers despite of a history of violence, a concern shared by other commentators.

Supporters of PAS have advocated for April 25th to be recognized as Parental Alienation Awareness Day.

Reception

PAS has not been accepted by experts in psychology, child advocacy or the study of child abuse or legal scholars. However, Psychiatrist William Bernet states that the phenomena of PAS is almost universally accepted by medical health professionals. PAS has been extensively criticized by members of legal and mental health community, who state that PAS should not be admissible in child custody hearings based on both science and law. The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges rejected PAS and recommended it not be used for the consideration of child custody issues.

Relation to the DSM

PAS is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). In 2002, Gardner published a letter in Men's News Daily urging therapists, parents and lawyers to write to the committees working on the fifth publication of the DSM to give evidence that it exists and to include PAS in the next version. Gardner stated that it was not included in the 1994 release of the DSM due to a lack of peer reviewed articles, but since then many new publications and court rulings have been released. In 2008, Psychiatrist William Bernet provided arguments for including parental alienation disorder in the next edition of the DSM.

Scientific status

Experts critical of PAS describe it as a hypothesis that has not met the burden of proof required to demonstrate that it is true, state that it has not been replicated except by its proponents and research by other professionals has not substantiated some of its tenets. Also cited are a variety of theoretical and practical problems (confusing a child's developmental reaction to a divorce with psychosis, a vast overstatement of the number of false allegations of child sexual abuse, ignoring the literature suggesting most allegations of child sexual abuse are well founded, ignoring efforts by one parent to protect their child from the abusive other parent, exaggerations of the damaging effects of parental alienation on children and proposing an unsupported and endangering remedy for PAS) Concern has also been expressed that PAS lacks adequate scientific support to be considered a syndrome, and that Gardner has promoted PAS as a syndrome based on a vague clustering of behaviors.

Though Gardner's initial books on PAS were self-published and not peer reviewed, subsequent articles have been published in peer reviewed journals, though some of these were based on anecdotal evidence in the form of case studies. Gardner's writings published in both peer reviewed journals and legal decisions have been described as lacking both validity and reliability and despite this, testimony regarding the evaluation of PAS is inappropriately viewed as reliable by family court judges. As of 2001 no studies had been published that directly evaluate whether different evaluators can arrive at the same diagnosis of the existence and severity of PAS though a single problematic study in 2004 suggested practitioners could come to a consensus based on written reports.

Clinical status

PAS has been criticized for making clinical work with children who are alienated more confusing.

PAS has been described as incomplete, simplistic and erroneous for ignoring the multiple factors (including the behaviors of the child, parents and other family members) that may contribute to parental alienation, family dysfunction and a breakdown in attachment between a parent and a child. Gardner's analysis is criticized for inappropriately assigning all responsibility of the child's behavior to one parent, when in cases where the alienated parent has sufficient parenting time, the child's behavior is oftentimes, but not always, the result of a dynamic in which both parents and the child play a role.

Gardner disagreed with criticism of PAS as overly simplistic, stating that while there are a wide variety of causes on why a child may become alienated from a parent, the primary etiological factor in cases of PAS is the brainwashing parent, and that otherwise, there is no PAS. Gardner also stated that those initially critical of PAS for being a caricature were not directly involved with families in custody disputes and that criticisms of this nature faded by the late 1980s because the disorder was widespread.

Views of PAS as sexist

PAS has been criticized by for being sexist, being used by fathers to marginalize legitimate fears and concerns about abuse, and women's groups and others oppose the legitimacy of PAS as a danger to children. Gardner and Psychologist Amy Baker state that mothers and fathers equally likely to alienate, and stated (along with psychologist Amy Baker) that men are now equally likely to be PAS indoctrinators, and the deniers of PAS are hurting children and women who are victims of their husbands’ PAS indoctrinations.

In courts

United States

PAS has been cited as part of the child custody determination process in the United States. Based on the evaluation of PAS, courts in the US have awarded sole custody to some fathers. PAS has been challenged under the Frye test, to evaluate if it has been accepted by the scientific community. Gardner states that after Frye hearings, courts in Florida and Illinois have ruled that the evaluation of PAS is admissible in their respective courts of law, and he adds that these courts have concluded that PAS passes the Frye test because it has received widespread acceptance in the scientific community. Despite Garnder's claims, a 2006 analysis of legal decisions associated with PAS found that these decisions do not set legal precedent, PAS is viewed negatively in most legal scholarship, and that Gardner's writings do not support the existence of PAS. Of sixty-four precedent-bearing cases, only two decisions, both in New York State and both in criminal courts actually set precedents. Both held PAS inadmissable and one case found that PAS failed the Frye test as the appropriate professional community did not generally accept; this decision was upheld in an appellate court. Gardner listed fifty cases on his website that he claimed set precedents that made PAS admissable, but none actually did; forty six set no precedents or did not discuss admissability and the remaining four were problematic. One case stated that PAS passed the Frye test, but the appeal did not discuss the Frye test and actually " out the words "'parental alienation syndrome'" and focused on the "willingness and ability of each parent to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing relationship between the parents and the child." In the second case the appellate court did not discuss PAS; the third case specifically chose not to discuss the admissability of PAS and the fourth made no decision on PAS.

Canada

A research report by the Canadian Department of Justice describes PAS as "empirically unsupported" and favors a different framework for dealing with issues of alienation that has more research support.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the admissibility concerning the evaluation of PAS was rejected both in an expert review, and by the Court of Appeal.

History

It has been suggested that the symptoms of PAS have been described in the mental health literature since the 1940s. PAS was first defined by in a 1985 journal article by Gardner entitled "Recent Trends in Divorce and Custody Litigation" drawing upon his clinical experiences since the early 1980s. and repeated this definition as unchanged in 2001. Originally PAS was conceived of as an explanation for the increase in the number of reports of child abuse in the 1980s. Initially Gardner believed parents (usually the mother) made false accusations of child abuse and sexual abuse against the other parent in order to prevent further contact between them, but later Gardner qualified that in his experience accusations of sexual abuse were not present in the vast majority of cases of PAS and that fathers and mothers were equally likely to be the alienating parent. Gardner stated that by 1998, an increase in the awareness of PAS had lead to it being misapplied as a legal maneuver.

Gardner died in 2003, but later scholars have continued to research and publish about PAS.

References

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