This dissertation summarizes the research of 30 court referred, custody dispute cases assessing the behaviors of the parents and their children to determine the presence or absence of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). The criteria to determine the parent and their children's behaviors is Dr. Gardner's definition of Parental Alienation Syndrome. The parents were placed in three categories (mild, moderate or severe) based on their symptoms and behaviors. Their children (59) were then categorized into three groups (mild, moderate, severe). This investigation seeks to determine additional information regarding the presence or absence of PAS.Reluctance by the courts and mental health community to accept the validity of PAS probably contributes to the perpetuation of the disruption of parent-child relations in custody disputes. Findings and Conclusions: It appears the data from this study corroborates observations and definitions of Parental Alienation Syndrome. The data from this study indicates that the parents in the mild PAS category have children who exhibit fewer negative behaviors toward the alienated parents whereas children whose parents are in the severe category exhibit more negative behaviors towards the alienated parents. This study found that the more negative behaviors a child exhibits towards an alienated parent, the more severe their parent's symptoms and behaviors. Consequently, there is more severe alienation from the alienated parent and the more disruption to that parent-child relation. PAS is a distinctive form of child abuse generally found in intractable custody disputes.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book provides the reader with thought provoking ideas regarding parental alienation, its causes, symptomology, and remedies. It is useful for family law attornies, mental health professionals, and families involved in custody cases. Parents whose children have turned away from them and refuse visitation will find this book insightful and with a possible answer to their children's refusal or reluctance to visit them.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The biggest problem that the author seems to have is that, as an avid proponent for a certain idea, she has allowed that fervor to blind her to other very legitimate causes of why a child might not want to visit or live with an abusive parent.
One of the basic necessities for a non-biased evaluation of anything, whether it is a clinical trial for a new drug, a child custody evaluation, or a winetasting event, is that the evaluator must identify and screen out co-causes of the outcome. In a court case in which someone sued for negligence due to a slip and fall, were they looking ahead or were they distracted? Were they carrying anything? What were their shoes like? In those shoes, do they also fall easily on other surfaces? There are dozens of co-causes, and it is the sometimes subjective role of the jury or judge to rule them out or to decide how much they contributed to the outcome. In medical and clinical trials, contributing factors are explicitly listed as "co-causes" or "co-morbidity," and are statistically weighted.
This author, however, throws common sense out the window by failing to note other possible co-causes for alienation or to give them any weight in her evaluation. Is the alienated parent also explosive in temper? Have they frightened the child in the past? Are they overly critical, or do they bully the child, or the other parent? Have they been abusive to the other parent in front of the child? To fail to give weight to other factors, and to assign all the blame to the non-alienated parent, is shoddy clinical work.
For a more balanced counterpoint, and one helpful in recognizing the other dynamics at work in problematic family situations, I would suggest Lundy Bancroft's "The Batterer as Parent: Addressing the Impact of Domestic Violence on Family Dynamics."
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.6 out of 5 stars
11 reviews
24 of 35 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent read for mental health professionals & Attornies
Mar 15 2003
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This book provides the reader with thought provoking ideas regarding parental alienation, its causes, symptomology, and remedies. It is useful for family law attornies, mental health professionals, and families involved in custody cases. Parents whose children have turned away from them and refuse visitation will find this book insightful and with a possible answer to their children's refusal or reluctance to visit them.
6 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Baker says it all in her book on Adult Children of PAS; excellent read and correlates many findings of other researchers
Oct 2 2009
By Janelle L. Burrill
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Excellent recent research,which is coroborrated by Baker's recent study of Adult Children of Parental Alienation Syndrome. The West Coast vs. the East Coast researchers are in such competition, they have forgot it is the children's best interests and welfare which must be protected, not their competitive egos to denounce other research. This includes finding remedies and early interventions, barring true abuse, so that researchers' intent should be finding ways to protect parent-child relations and protect the children so that both parents and children have positive interactions and safe access. Dr. Burrill or Dr. Baker or Dr. Warshak, "Divorce Poison," ever suggest allowing or exposing children who are abused by either parent as part of alienation nor should it be. Alienation cases are documented cases; wherein, one parent has systematically turned the child against the other parent by continuous assauts against the child's thoughts and feelings s about the other parent causing signification disturbance and distortions of reality in the child. PAS is not true molest or abuse or a manner in which perpetrators should ever have any type of access; this is entirely different and should be immediately turned over to law enforcement agencies to determine these types of allegations and substantiated, evidentiary abuse.
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck
Feb 26 2009
By Nathanael Greene
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Do not be deceived, as I was - mia culpa! - by the disarming size of this diminutive volume, because this booklet is a treasure trove of indispensable, soundly reasoned, captivating logic regarding the validity of a psychosocial condition which Dr. Richard A. Gardner termed the "parental alienation syndrome" - but which is more recently being referred to as a "disorder."
If brevity is the soul of wit, or if "less is more," then Janelle Burrill's cogent booklet exemplifies the soul of wit.
For readers who believe this book's logically reasoned presentation may omit a vital component, look at the text again, and you may find what you are looking for.
This booklet's author logically confronts the critics who deny the validity or existence of the "parental alienation syndrome" (or "disorder"). Ms. Burrill concludes, from logically reasoned examination, that, as defined, the "parental alienation syndrome" is a valid concept.
The author's reasoned conclusion regarding the validity of the "parental alienation syndrome" concept mirrors the conclusion regarding the validity of the "parental alienation syndrome" concept reached by the American Bar Association "Section of Family Law's" book entitled CREATING EFFECTIVE PARENTING PLANS: A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH FOR LAWYERS AND DIVORCE PROFESSIONALS, i.e., that (page 111) "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck" - ergo, if the facts of an individual case of alleged child alienation fit the conceptual profile of this psychosocial condition, then there is a compelling fit.
When, initially, I superficially examined Janelle Burrill's published dissertation, my initial impression was that publishing her dissertation was an act of hubris and self-advertisement by Janelle Burrill. However, when I actually read this booklet's text, I realized that Janelle Burrill had reason to believe her booklet is a worthwhile pioneering contribution to the fledgling concept and literature of the "parental alienation syndrome." and that by publishing her dissertation Ms. Burrill was contributing to the acceptance of the "parental alienation syndrome" concept and, in doing so, is promoting the "best interests" of alienated children and parents of alienated children.
This booklet's title is somewhat misleading, as it suggests that the book provides legal instruction as to how to apply the "parental alienation syndrome" concept in contested child custody cases being litigated in court. However, from a non-legal perspective, this booklet does provide useful guidance.
Postscript (1/17/11): The first "comment" to this review alleges some serious charges against the author of this booklet. I do not know if these alleged charges do in fact exist and, if so, whether these alleged charges are true or false. I have not reread Janelle Burrill's booklet since I initially posted this "customer review." However, these alleged charges are irrelevant to the validity of the text of Janelle Burrill's booklet, or to the validity of my "customer review." Janelle Burrill's well-resoned booklet appealed to me because I am a "target" parent who (like my daughter) is a victim of my child's alienation from me. I therefore wholeheartedly support the PAS concept, and reasoned literature which supports the PAS concept. I don't give a hoot whether PAS is called a "syndrome" or not; PAS exists.
If brevity is the soul of wit, or if "less is more," then Janelle Burrill's cogent booklet exemplifies the soul of wit.
For readers who believe this book's logically reasoned presentation may omit a vital component, look at the text again, and you may find what you are looking for.
This booklet's author logically confronts the critics who deny the validity or existence of the "parental alienation syndrome" (or "disorder"). Ms. Burrill concludes, from logically reasoned examination, that, as defined, the "parental alienation syndrome" is a valid concept.
The author's reasoned conclusion regarding the validity of the "parental alienation syndrome" concept mirrors the conclusion regarding the validity of the "parental alienation syndrome" concept reached by the American Bar Association "Section of Family Law's" book entitled CREATING EFFECTIVE PARENTING PLANS: A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH FOR LAWYERS AND DIVORCE PROFESSIONALS, i.e., that (page 111) "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck" - ergo, if the facts of an individual case of alleged child alienation fit the conceptual profile of this psychosocial condition, then there is a compelling fit.
When, initially, I superficially examined Janelle Burrill's published dissertation, my initial impression was that publishing her dissertation was an act of hubris and self-advertisement by Janelle Burrill. However, when I actually read this booklet's text, I realized that Janelle Burrill had reason to believe her booklet is a worthwhile pioneering contribution to the fledgling concept and literature of the "parental alienation syndrome." and that by publishing her dissertation Ms. Burrill was contributing to the acceptance of the "parental alienation syndrome" concept and, in doing so, is promoting the "best interests" of alienated children and parents of alienated children.
This booklet's title is somewhat misleading, as it suggests that the book provides legal instruction as to how to apply the "parental alienation syndrome" concept in contested child custody cases being litigated in court. However, from a non-legal perspective, this booklet does provide useful guidance.
Postscript (1/17/11): The first "comment" to this review alleges some serious charges against the author of this booklet. I do not know if these alleged charges do in fact exist and, if so, whether these alleged charges are true or false. I have not reread Janelle Burrill's booklet since I initially posted this "customer review." However, these alleged charges are irrelevant to the validity of the text of Janelle Burrill's booklet, or to the validity of my "customer review." Janelle Burrill's well-resoned booklet appealed to me because I am a "target" parent who (like my daughter) is a victim of my child's alienation from me. I therefore wholeheartedly support the PAS concept, and reasoned literature which supports the PAS concept. I don't give a hoot whether PAS is called a "syndrome" or not; PAS exists.
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2.6 out of 5 stars
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