Parental Denigration: A Form of Conflict that Typically Backfires

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12339
• Author: Robert Emery,Jenna Rowen
• Published date: 01 April 2018
• Date: 01 April 2018

CLINICAL PERSPECTIVES AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH ON

CONFLICT INTERVENTION

PARENTAL DENIGRATION: A FORM OF CONFLICT THAT

TYPICALLY BACKFIRES

Jenna Rowen and Robert Emery

Parental denigration is a phenomenon characterized by disparaging comments made by one parent about the other parent in

front of their children. It is an emerging area of research with implications that could either follow a parental alienation per-

spective or a conflict perspective. In two prior studies of 648 and 994 young adults, denigration was found to be (1) measured

reliably and perhaps validly; (2) reciprocally occurring; (3) related to children feeling more distant from both parents, particu-

larly the more frequent denigrator; and (4) associated with various measures of maladjustment. These results held in married

and divorced families, for mothers and fathers, in group and individual analyses, across own and sibling reports, and across

studies. In a new study, parents also showed agreement in reported denigration, with divorced (particularly litigating) parents

appearing motivated to underreport their own denigration behaviors and overreport their co-parent’s denigration behaviors.

Across all three studies, results consistently aligned with a conflict perspective and indicated that denigrating one’s co-parent

appears to boomerang and hurt the parent’s own relationship with the children rather than distance children from the co-parent.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

Denigrating a co-parent to children is a behavior central to assertions of parental alienation, where one parent is said to

be a victim of the other’s hostility, resulting in the children becoming distant from the victimized parent.

A parental conflict perspective, in contrast, predicts that denigration will be reciprocal, not one sided, and will distance

children from both parents, particularly the one who denigrates the other more.

Denigration was measured reliably in two large samples of young adults; siblings showed a high degree of correspon-

dence in reports of denigration.

Consistent with the parental conflict perspective, in both large studies, denigration was found to be reciprocal and

related to children feeling more distant from both parents, particularly the parent who denigrated more.

No support for the alienation hypothesis was discovered at the group or the individual levels in two studies that

included over 1,500 young adults.

In new data presented here, separated and litigating co-parents appeared to overreport their co-parent’s denigration and

underreport their own.

While alienation can occur, a boomerang effect appears to be the overwhelming normative result of parental denigra-

tion. Putting down your co-parent to your children is likely to distance your children from you, not your co-parent.

Court professionals need to educate parents about the harmful effects of denigration and carefully evaluate claims of

alienation in light of this new, normative evidence.

Keywords: Divorce; Interparental Conflict; Parental Alienation; and Parental Denigration.

The term “parental denigration” refers to one parent directly disparaging or speaking negatively

about the other parent to, or in front of, his/her children (Rowen & Emery, 2014). This behavior is of

interest for two reasons. First, research on parental denigration can contribute to a better understand-

ing of the controversial construct, “parental alienation.” Second, parental denigration adds to and

broadens the extensive literature on parental conflict and its potential influence on children.

How does parental denigration differ from parental alienation? As readers are aware, there are many

differences of opinion about the definition of parental alienation (Fidler, Bala, & Saini, 2013). A basic

Corresponding: jrowen@uic.edu; ree@virginia.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 56 No. 2, April 2018 258–268

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C2018 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts