What is Parental Alienation?

Parental alienation means that one parent makes the child hate the other parent through influence and other forms of abuse. Usually, the alienating parent attempts to harm, alter or destroy the bond that exists between the child and the targeted parent. It may involve the child telling off the targeted parent or making up stories about the parent to other people. In the long run, the child is conditioned to unjustifiably reject the targeted parent in the process.

Causes of Parental Alienation

It is essential to understand that parental alienation could happen for different reasons. Common causes include:

Divorce and Child Custody Disputes

Divorce is a process that is typical for experiencing emotions and stress. There are situations when one parent decides to punish the other and tries to make the child hate the other parent. Spousal mistreatment behaviors may starts when there are conflicts concerning with child custody and visitation. The alienating parent views the child as an object that they can use to express their anger and frustration.

Personality Disorders

Maladaptive personalities such as narcissistic personality disorders or borderline personality disorders can cause parental alienation. These disorders lead to difficulty in empathy, low self-esteem, anger management, and vengeful behaviors – things that provoke estrangement. It also means that some parents with these disorders can be so self-absorbed that they fail to see their child’s need to be with the other parent.

False Allegations of Abuse

Sometimes an alienating parent becomes convinced of the ‘badness’ of the targeted parent and reports the targeted parent as an abuser. For instance, a mother may want to deny the father access to their child and therefore make up an allegation of physical or sexual abuse. These false allegations can seriously test and harm the parent-child relationship.

New Romantic Relationships

One of the negative effects of joint physical custody is that when one of the parents has a new partner, the new partner becomes the favorite. In their attempt to win the affection of the new partner, the parent starts exhibiting the alienating behavior such as permitting the new partner to take the place of the other parent or discouraging the child from showing affection to the targeted parent.

Desire for Control and Power

Another factor that is evident in most cases of parental alienation is the need to dominate and exercise authority over the child. Harming the other parent, the alienating parent gains complete influence over the child and interferes in the communication between the two. Of course, when the child turns to them for money, help with organization and day-to-day issues, as well as emotional support, they can feel all powerful and indispensable in a wrong sense.

Effects of Parental Alienation on the Child

Parental alienation can significantly impact a child’s wellbeing and development in several ways:Parental alienation can significantly impact a child’s wellbeing and development in several ways:

Loss of Self-Esteem and Confidence

It is quite painful for children when they are rejected by a parent, and all they have done is to be innocent. It makes them to develop some sort of self-doubt and they end up losing their self-confidence. When one parent tells them their other loving parent is somehow bad or dangerous, they experience intense self-blame and confusion.

Behavioral Problems

Parental alienation has impacts like defiance and aggression among children that have been affected. As has been seen, behavioral disorders can manifest themselves alongside other mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, both of which originate from the emotional abuse that is parental alienation. Their behavior and development become less adaptive as the mechanisms of coping are compromised.

Impaired Social Functioning

One of the things that come with being alienated from a loving parent is that you lose the physical and emotional touch and direction from the parent. This is detrimental to children because it denies them the chance to learn appropriate relationship behaviors. In the long-run, it affects the individuals competency in developing close relationships, conflict management and intimacy with others.

Difficulty Trusting Parents and Authority Figures

Betrayal by one parent makes children develop trust deficit disorders. They only see that their trusted caregiver has literally messed with their feelings, which makes them not to trust the adults and other authority figures that are supposed to stand for the children. Such trust issues are likely to be carried forward throughout adulthood as they are initially formed in childhood.

Fear, Stress and Anxiety

Parental alienation scenarios are very toxic to children and can put them under a lot of pressure. They live in a parent’s house and are separated from one parent through either death or abduction while being subjected to emotional abuse by the other parent. It is also extremely painful and frightening to have to deny someone they once cherished as a parent. This kind of high consistent stress in childhood, therefore, leads to severe psychological dysfunction.

 Conclusion

If left unresolved, parental alienation presents dire developmental and mental implications on children. Even the slightest degree of alienation is indicative of relational dysregulation within the family that needs immediate intervention. Some families may be able to overcome the false belief and regain the parent-child relationship through support such as counseling, parenting education, and court orders. Support networks can also assist the targeted parents to maintain their rightful place and the relationship they have with the child.