Parental Alienation Syndrome

Parental Alienation Syndrome

Introduction

In recent years, the traditional family model has undergone major changes, this becomes evident in a great increase in separations and divorces during the last decades. The National Superintendence of Public Registries (SUNARP) reported that in Peru, from January to May of this year the registration of divorces in the registry of natural persons grew in thirteen departments, compared to 2018 and only in the first five months of 2019 a total of 3,506 divorces have been registered at the national level.

Children experience the separation of their parents as something painful, difficult to address and that supposes a series of changes. He also adds that the attitudes they take will depend on the age and stage that they cross at the time of separation.

Developing

After the decision to separate or divorce, a dispute over the possession of the child arises in the first instance. Previously, it was the mother who obtained the guardianship, leaving the father relegated to complying with a visitation regime; However, this situation has changed, becoming a struggle for who stays with the son. Then, as Martins and Torranca point out, one of the parents makes a kind of brainwashing with her son, to achieve by injuries that the other parent becomes a villain.

Under this premise that refers to a tendency by one of the parents to influence the child in order to generate rejection towards the other, the term of parental alienation (SAP) syndrome arises, as it was first proposed By American psychiatrist Richard Gardner in 1985.

Meanwhile, parental alienation (AP) according to González refers to the set of relational problems that may arise among family members; However, he adds that, there is almost exclusively in divorced or separate families and in context of litigation by custody of the children.

According to Martínez, 25 percent of the children of divorced parents fighting for the possession of minors suffer from SAP and every four of these children presents manipulation symptoms by one of the parents.

Even when it has no scientific evidence, parental alienation syndrome (SAP) is today a problem that attacks the children of separate marriages, being considered according to Raúl Onostre as a form of child abuse. The SAP has its precedents in the eighties, when it was first defined by the American psychiatrist Richard Gardner; who defined it as a mental disorder that took place following the separation and divorce processes

In his theory, Gardner referred to one of the parents modeled the son in order to reject the other; However, it excluded issues where situations of violence or sexual abuse have certainly evidenced. Therefore, the term of parental alienation should only be employed when this child’s rejection is justified as long as the parent has not shown the aforementioned behaviors.

There is uncertainty about whether SAP should appear in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM). In that sense, Ramón Vilalta and Maxime Winberg address this controversy, arguing that SAP is only classifiable in the fifth edition of the DSM as a problem of relationship between parents and children or as a problem of unjustified family interaction.

Similarly, Adolfo Jarne and Mila Arch make a review and analysis of the DSM to determine the existence or not of the parental alienation syndrome, thus, they point out that the DSM describes a sub section called “relationship problems”, within this category it is Includes "paternal-philial problems" characterized by deterioration of communication, on protection, inappropriate discipline.

In this sense, Padilla criticizes SAP, arguing that he has never been scientifically proven being rejected by scientific organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Psychological Association (APA). However, despite this, the term is used in many Spanish courts; Therefore, scientific evidence is necessary in the performance of psychologists within the justice system, otherwise it can lead to professional bad praxis.

For their part, Vaccaro and Barea point out that studies have never been validated by the SAP, because the analysis has mostly been oriented towards their disability. The works written in another language that are not English that account for a critical or scientific analysis for their validation are scarce. There is a lot of Spanish work that refers to the SAP compared to the United States, its place of origin, where its use is discussed due to lack of scientificity. Likewise, the authors add there is no interest on the part of professionals in corroborating what would be true in the reasons that support both the rejection and disability of the "SAP".

Conclusions

According to what was mentioned above, it can be inferred that parental alienation is a latent problem. It is undeniable that the family over the years has evolved, in terms of its structure and concept as such, and following the increase with respect to the percentage of divorces and separations, a major problem arises that has to do with the impact it generates in children.

It is known that a determining aspect in the proper development of children, both socially and individual, are parental relationships; However, they are negatively influenced by conflicts or problems of marital mismanage, as is the case of parental alienation.

In this context, the situation of minors worries, who face great changes during the separation of their parents, which alter the stability of their daily lives. From this, it is necessary to have an instrument that evaluates the psychosocial and affective consequences that this process entails, in order to create consciousness in parents about how detrimental ones result for their children, conflicts and conjugal tensions in the Marriage dissolution process.