An Objective Measure of Splitting in Parental Alienation: The Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Family Studies

Background:

• Distinguishing parental alienation from other reasons for parent contact refusal is crucial for clinicians and forensic practitioners.
• Parental alienation involves a child's unjustified rejection of a parent.
• Alienated children often exhibit splitting and lack ambivalence towards the rejected parent, unlike maltreated children who perceive abusive parents ambivalently.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) for identifying and quantifying splitting in children.
• To determine if PARQ can assist in diagnosing parental alienation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ).
• Assessed children from divorced families, comparing those with suspected parental alienation to other family groups.
• Quantified the degree of splitting behavior exhibited by children.

Main Results:

• Severely alienated children demonstrated high levels of splitting.
• These children perceived the preferred parent extremely positively and the rejected parent extremely negatively.
• Splitting behavior was not observed in children from other family groups.

Conclusions:

• The PARQ is a potentially useful tool for clinicians and forensic practitioners.
• It can aid in evaluating children when parental alienation is a concern.
• The questionnaire helps quantify splitting, a key indicator in diagnosing parental alienation.