Calif-legal.com: Expert Article - PARENTAL ALIENATION AND ENMESHMENT ISSUES IN CHILD CUSTODY CASES by Daniel J. Rybicki, Psy.D., DAPBS

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Instead, Kelly and Johnston (2001) seek to redirect our thinking to considering these complex issues by examining family systems factors, situational factors, and individual factors while formulating diagnostic impressions of dysfunctional families using a continuum model. The draw attention to the concept of the "alienated child" who is "one who expresses freely and persistently, unreasonable negative feelings and beliefs (such as anger, hatred, rejection, and/or fear) toward a parent that are significantly disproportionate to the child's actual experience with that parent (p.251)." Thus, there is a greater emphasis on the observed problem in the child, and less of a simple indictment of the alienating parent as the only etiological factor of note. These authors call for the evaluator to differentiate alienated children from children who resist visitation for other reasons such as normal, realistic, and/or developmentally expectable reasons. Normal separation anxieties, resistance rooted in alignment with one parent in high-conflict divorce, resistance due to parenting style, resistance due to fears over an emotionally fragile parent, and resistance due to remarriage or other relationship concerns are but a few of these other formulations which Kelly and Johnston point out.

Their continuum model posits five positions, and includes one position for more serious alienation of the type that Gardner might describe. Children's relationships with their parents after separation and divorce may fall along this continuum. The most favorable position is a positive relationship with both parents. Next the child may have an affinity for one parent over the other, while still desiring contact and continuity with both parents. Allied children tend to ally with one parent, and demonstrate a consistent preference, and want only limited contact with the other parent. This third stage may be the result of pre-divorce personality or interpersonal dynamics, parenting style, or developmental issues in the child. Level four on the continuum reflects the outcome of realistic problems, such as exposure of the children to domestic disputes or violence wherein the children become estranged. Abuse, neglect, family violence, chemical dependency in the parent, and other factors may create the estrangement, and there may be no alienating behaviors in the other parent to support the child's desire to restrict their contact with the parent. Unlike alienated children, estranged children do not harbor unreasonable anger or fear; they have a basis for their views and concerns. Finally, there is the position of the alienated child, who may strongly resist visitation or contact with the other parent, and who will express their rejection of that parent with some strident and strong sentiments, and without guilt or empathy for the other's parent's feelings. This is a pathological response that emerges in the absence of realistic factors as noted in the case of the estranged child. It is only this level that may resemble some of the Gardner PAS or PA descriptions. Even then, Kelly and Johnston note several other factors other than an alienating parent that may account for the observed alienation in the child. These include systemic factors (child triangulated in intense marital conflict; separation experienced as humiliation; impact of high-conflict litigious divorce; contributions of new partners, extended family, and professionals), behaviors of the rejecting parent that contribute to alienation (passivity and withdrawal; counter-rejection of the child; harsh and rigid parenting style; critical and demanding traits; immature and self-centered behavior; diminished empathy for the aligned child), and developmental stage vulnerabilities within the child (child's age and cognitive complexity; child feels abandoned and rejected; temperament and personality factors). Their full model is beyond the scope of this paper to address, but the central tenet is that alienation as observed in the most severe cases may be the outgrowth of several factors all of which require thorough and detailed consideration by any evaluator seeking to study a family system for the court.

In keeping with the view that alienation issues are more complex than originally formulated by Gardner, and in accordance with the concept that alienation reflects more of a disturbance in family systems functioning than a distinct diagnosable condition, therapists Margaret Lee and Nancy Olesen offer useful recommendations for improved assessment of alienation in child custody cases. They contend that the simple three level intervention strategy used by Gardner is also grossly oversimplified, and that problems with confirmatory bias might foreclose the process of investigation when an evaluator finds some of the red flags listed by Gardner. "Another problematic conclusion is that if one finds a parent engaging in alienating behavior, the child is automatically seen as alienated. This might lead an evaluator to dismiss other relevant concerns and issues. It also leads the evaluator to conclude prematurely that the child is rejecting a parent because of these processes, even when that might not be the case (p.283)." They urge the evaluator to take a more comprehensive and thorough investigative approach, considering a host of factors such as those outlined by Kelly and Johnston (2001). The offer a decision tree for conducting that assessment which begins with having the evaluator consider whether or not the child's behavior resembles that of an alienated child (defined as "one who expresses freely and persistently, unreasonable negative feelings and beliefs toward a parent that are significantly disproportionate to the child's actual experience with that parent" citing Kelly and Johnston, 2001, p.251). If there are such indicators, then the evaluation examines parental behaviors, historical information, parent-child relationship history, and factors that might lead to estrangement. They concur with Kelly and Johnston (2001) in seeking to differentiate between alienation and realistic estrangement by considering whether the child has been traumatized by various forms of abuse or neglect, or by witnessing domestic violence. Other disturbances in parental adjustment (e.g., mental health problems, chemical dependency, harsh parenting) may also be realistic factors that contribute to the estrangement. Beyond these elements, Lee and Olesen call for consideration of the full family context, including bonding and attachment issues, alignment with one parent or siblings, communications and identification issues, etc. They go on to offer an outline of some of the sources of data which might help the evaluator address these questions (e.g., clinical data from the parents and the child, direct observations of all of the parties, collateral input and records, and psychological testing).