When The Other Parent Is Shunned

Jennifer Bailey — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0500

Professors at the University of Grenada have discovered that 25 percent of children of divorced parents experience Parental Alienation Syndrome, also known as PAS.

PAS refers to "manipulation of children by the custodial parent, who incessantly tries to turn them against the other parent by arousing in them feelings of hatred and contempt for the target parent". The authors state that the target parent is usually men, since women typically have more custodial control and therefore more time to influence their children. It is estimated that approximately one in four children are affected PAS.

Children exposed to PAS will often not only reject their parent, generally their father, but his friends and family as well. The child may also take the hatred they have been taught to feel towards the target parent and apply it to grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and anyone else associated with the target parent, causing the child to "expel (these people) from their lives."

Symptoms of children experiencing this syndrome often include denigrating the target parent, having no trouble expressing negative feelings toward that parent, refusing to admit that they have been influenced by anyone, lack of guilt towards their opinions of the target parent, and recounting events that they could not have witnessed but have heard from other people. Typically, children between the ages of 9 and 12 are most likely to be affected. It is less likely to occur in divorces that are mutual.

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When The Other Parent Is Shunned