Scientific Studies - Research Papers

These studies are all peer reviewed:

The authors of DSM-5 published a scientific paper to explain that parental alienation is indeed in DSM-5.

Richard Warshak, 2015, Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers;2015, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p181, Parental Alienation: Overview, Management, Intervention, and Practice Tips

The Long-Term Effects of Parental Alienation on Adult Children: A Qualitative Research Study Article (PDF Available) in American Journal of Family Therapy 33(4):289-302 · June 2005 with 488 Reads DOI: 10.1080/01926180590962129

Vachon DD, Krueger RF, Rogosch FA, Cicchetti D, JAMA Psychiatry. 2015;72(11):1135-1142.

Assessment of the Harmful Psychiatric and Behavioral Effects of Different Forms of Child Maltreatment

"Our findings challenge widely held beliefs about how child abuse should be recognized and treated—a responsibility that often lies with the physician. Because different types of child abuse have equivalent, broad, and universal effects, effective treatments for maltreatment of any sort are likely to have comprehensive psychological benefits. Population-level prevention and intervention strategies should emphasize emotional abuse, which occurs with high frequency but is less punishable than other types of child maltreatment". And also "Finally, population-level prevention and intervention strategies should not ignore the considerable psychological harms imposed by emotional abuse, which rival those of physical abuse and neglect. Taken together with high worldwide prevalence and evidence that emotional and physical pain share a common somatosensory representa-ion in the brain, it is clear that emotional abuse is wide-spread, painful, and destructive."

Baker, A.J.L. (2007). Knowledge and Attitudes About the Parental Alienation Syndrome: A Survey of Custody Evaluators. American Journal of Family Therapy, 35(1), 1-19.

Baker, A.J.L. (2006a). Patterns of Parental Alienation Syndrome: A Qualitative Study of Adults Who were Alienated from a Parent as a Child. American Journal of Family Therapy, 34(1), 63-78.

Baker, A.J.L. (2006b). The power of stories/stories about power: Why therapists and clients should read stories about the parental alienation syndrome. American Journal of Family Therapy, 34(3), 191-203.

[Baker 2010] Baker, A. J. L. (2010). Adult recall of parental alienation in a community sample: Prevalence and associations with psychological maltreatment. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 51, 1-20, doi:10.1080/10502550903423206. 254 adults working in a social service agency completed a survey. Endorsements of parental alienation were statistically associated with psychological maltreatment, with correlations ranging from .30 to .52.

[Baker 2014] Amy J L Baker Ph.D., “Parental Alienation as a form of psychological maltreatment: Review of Theory and Research”, Maltrattamento e abuso all’infanzia, Vol. 16, n. 1, marzo 2014, p. 37-55 Here is a link to it on researchate

[Baker & Ben Ami] Baker, A. J. L., & Ben Ami, N. (2011) To Turn a Child Against a Parent is to Turn a Child Against Himself . Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 52, 7, 472-489 doi 10.1080/10502556.2011.609424 118 adults whose parents were divorced when they were under the age of 15 completed a survey. “The total parental alienation score was found to be statistically significantly associated with each of the five items of psychological maltreatment. It was also noted that “The psychological foundations of parental alienation – lack of empathy and inability to tolerate the child’s separate needs and perception – is also the foundation of psychological maltreatment” p. 473. [Verroccio & Baker 2013]

[Baker & Brassard 2013] Baker, A. J. L., & Brassard, M. R. (2013) Adolescents caught in parental loyalty conflicts. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 54, 5, 393-413, doi: 10.1080/10502556.2013.800398 20 high school boys completed a survey. Parental Alienation scores were associated with psychological maltreatment scores and R=.41 for mothers and R=.32 for fathers.

[Baker & Eichler 2014] Baker, A. J. L., & Eichler, A. “College student exposure to parental loyalty conflicts”, Families in Society, 2014, Volume 95, No. 1, p. 59-66 157 college students completed anonymous surveys that included questions on whether their parents displayed the 19 parental alienation behaviors and the 5 psychological maltreatment behaviors. Three factors accounted for 48% of the variance in psychological maltreatment: parental divorce, quality of parental relationship, number of parental alienation behaviors

[Baker & Verroccio 2013] Baker, A. J. L., & Verroccio, M. C. “Italian College Student-reported exposure to parental alienation: Correlates with well-being.” Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 54, 8, 609-628, doi:10.1080/105025556.2013.7377.14 Italian undergraduate students completed a survey. Parental alienation scores were associated with reports of psychological maltreatment from mothers and fathers

British Psychological Society (BPS). "Parental alienation: Why a better understanding is needed in the British family justice system." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 July 2014. "Despite recognition in recent high court judgements, it is poorly understood and rarely acknowledged in the British family justice system." "Dr Whitcombe will explain that the denigration and ultimate rejection of a parent in parental alienation is a psychological defence mechanism. Unable to manage the cognitive dissonance of their positive experience of a loving parent and the explicit or implicit negative messages they receive from the other parent, the child's immediate psychological distress is minimised by rejecting one parent."

Gordon 1998 "MMPI-2 Findings of Primitive Defenses in Alienating Parents" .... 158 MMPIs .... "We found that mothers and fathers who were alienators had higher (clinical range) scores indicating primitive defenses such as splitting and projective identification, than control mothers and fathers (normal range scores) in both our indexes. Target parents were mostly similar to the control parents. The results showed strong support for Gardner’s definition of PAS."

[Verroccio & Baker 2013] Verroccio, M. C., & Baker, A. J. L. (2013) “Italian adult’s recall of childhood exposure to parental loyalty conflicts” Journal of Child and Family Studies, 1-11,doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9816-0 39 Italian adults responded to a survey about their parent’s behaviors. Regression analysis showed an association between parental alienation behaviors and psychological maltreatment behaviors, with a beta weigh of 0.57.

These are not peer reviewed:

Gardner, R. (1998) Parental alienation: A guide for mental health and legal professionals. Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics Inc.