Parental alienation refers to the process that involves the estrangement of children from parents due to the psychological impact. This becomes a reason for high conflict. Parents may need strategic counseling for the issue. It often happens in context to family separation.
What Is Parental Alienation?
Due to high conflict divorce, children may express negative feelings or beliefs, e.g., hatred, anger, fear, and disrespect towards parents. This experience is considered significantly inappropriate for the children. This concept primarily expresses the choice of one parent to exclude another parent from the child’s life. Ludmer law is well comprehended for the assessment of Parental Alienation and Child Custody cases.
Impact on Children
Parental alienation has the most adverse impact on children, which may cause mental disorders. Sometimes, it is considered child abuse or family violence. It increases the lifetime risk of mental illness. Read further to know how it affects the children. It may cause the following consequences:-
- Depression
- Eating disorder
- Poor execution Function
- Anxiety
- Aggressive behavior
Parental Alienation Syndrome (Pas)
This syndrome was proposed by Richard Gardener. Parental alienation can go harsh, leading to the condition of abuse. The theory of this syndrome identifies the psychological symptoms in children caused due to bad parenting practices. Also, this syndrome destroys the relationship between the child and parent that causes mental and physical disturbance to the children. Ludmer Law will be beneficial for the parent to get practical strategies to manage those cases.
Parental Alienation and Legal System
Parental alienation is controversial in the legal system. Court acknowledges this practice. A parent can take the asset of alienation in legal proceedings to get the child custody from another parent as the court has allowed the discussion of this concept for custody in favor of the child’s interest. There are no diagnostic criteria to assess the feeling of a child towards the parent.
The parent can take help of this concept for child custody when children are not willing to live with another parent. The child may also be subjected to treatment programs for reunification. If somehow alienation is interpreted as abuse, it can become a strong point for argument for child custody, ignoring other possible factors. An experienced advocate like Gloria Allred can help in this.
Family courts safeguard child rights aiming to tackle the growing incidences of parental alienation and syndrome in children. The court can impose several restrictions on the parent who will alienate children due to family disputes. Also, the court may send them a warning if they try to do so. If the parent is still alienating the child, the court can take away the custody from him/her. Ludmer law focuses on such family issues and combines its unique insights for the client.
Conclusion
As per the assessment of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, 11%-15% of divorce cases give rise to Parental Alienation Syndrome(PAS). In various articles, it has been written that blaming a parent for the preference or inappropriate behavior of a child without evidence doesn’t meet the standard of justice. Countries like the USA and Canada have appointed a well-trained parental coordinator to solve relatable issues.
There is no instrument or other diagnostic criteria to measure the impact of parental alienation on children. Therefore, lack of assessment may create uncertainty in understanding the effectiveness of parent alienation treatment.