The purpose of the present study was to examine Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) and to expand the research based knowledge in the area. PAS entails both psychological processes and legal dimensions as it occurs primarily within the context of custody litigation. False allegations of abuse (FA) are commonly associated with PAS and similarly entail both psychological and legal issues. The research comprised two separate studies. First, interviews with target parents were conducted to attain their unique perceptions and experiences of PAS and on the way their cases were handled within the legal system. Second, a quantitative comparison between PAS and FA was performed to identify any similarities and differences and examine a possible relationship between the two. Results highlighted inherent difficulties for successful joint custody arrangements for PAS families as communication was difficult and litigation was prominent. In spite of well-established parent-child relationships before the divorce, these were negatively impacted with the onset of litigation. Parents and children were negatively impacted from the PAS, including reported mental illness for both. In FA cases the children were found to be significantly younger and from one-child families compared with PAS families. Women were found to more likely be the alienators or accusers of FA. In spite of having the legal authority to deal with the PAS, judges reportedly rarely utilized this power. The limitations of the research are discussed and direction for future study given.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.86057 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Vassiliou, Despina |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002267653, proquestno: AAINR21706, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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