Guest Editors' Introduction to the 2020 Special Issue on Parent–Child Contact Problems: Concepts, Controversies & Conundrums

• Published date: 01 April 2020
• Author: Barbara Jo Fidler,Nicholas Bala
• Date: 01 April 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12471

SPECIAL ISSUE: PARENT-CHILD CONTACT PROBLEMS: CONCEPTS,

CONTROVERSIES, & CONUNDRUMS

GUEST EDITORS’INTRODUCTION TO THE 2020 SPECIAL ISSUE ON

PARENT–CHILD CONTACT PROBLEMS: CONCEPTS,

CONTROVERSIES & CONUNDRUMS

It has been our privilege to work with the contributors and Editors to prepare this Special Issue

of Family Court Review on the challenging problems that arise when children resist contact with a

parent after separation or divorce. Cases of children resisting contact with a parent are often com-

plex and dynamic, with multiple interacting factors that are likely to be changing as the case goes

forward. Almost all of these cases involve children who are suffering in some way from a high con-

flict parental separation, and will benefit from the help of the family courts and skilled profes-

sionals. Some of these children may be considered “alienated,”in the sense of resisting contact or

rejecting a parent in a way that is disproportionate to the child’s experience with that parent and

inconsistent with the previous relationship of the child with the parent, primarily though not neces-

sarily exclusively due to the influence of a favored parent. Other children may be reacting primarily

to abuse, exposure to partner violence or parenting deficiencies by a rejected parent. In still other

situations children may be attempting to cope with the distress and dissonance associated with the

conflict and tensions between both parents; experiencing neutrality is no longer viable, so they

choose to side with one of their parents for various reasons.

For over a century there has been recognition that there are cases where after separation children

are resisting contact with one parent due to the influence of the other parent, originally called cases

where one parent “poisoned the child’s mind”against the other parent. In the late 1980’s the Ameri-

can psychiatrist Richard Gardner developed the concept of “parental alienation syndrome”to

describe such cases. Gardner focused on rejection of fathers, particularly in the context of sexual

abuse allegations by mothers that may have been unfounded. Since Gardner wrote, there has been

continuing controversy about how to understand and respond to these cases. It has become clear

that mothers as well as fathers may be victims of alienation, that cases of unjustified rejection by a

child of a parent may involve many different types of situation s, and that in some cases a child’s

rejection of a parent may be justified and promote the child’s well-being. Cases involving chil d sex-

ual abuse allegations are still a significant concern, but only a relatively small portion of cases of

children resisting contact with a parent.

In 2000 the Annual Conference of the AFCC was held in New Orleans and themed, Alienation,

Access and Attachment, providing a forum for engaging in dialogue and debate about the emerging

concept of parental alienation. Building on the theme of that Conference, in July 2001 the FCR

published a Special Issue on Alienation, guest edited by two of the world’s leading experts on

Corresponding: drbarbarafidler@sympatico.ca; bala@queensu.ca

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 58 No. 2, April 2020 265–269

© 2020 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts