The Link between Long-Period Psychological Behavior and Exposure to Parental Alienation at Childhood - Assignment Example

Psychology, Assignment Topic: Research Article Review Paper (PAS) 11th November Ben-Ami, N. and Baker, A.J.L.; publications: 2012 This research work aims at investigating the link between the long-period psychological behavior and exposure to parental alienation at childhood. Ben-Ami and Baker (2012) proposes a correlation on the perception of having experienced parental alienation (PA) by a parent against the target parent with some five selected psychological domains. In their hypothesis, it is projected that subjects belonging to PA group will have dysfunction in all psychological domains compared to those belonging to No-PA. These domains are self sufficiency and those that defines a person well-being namely alcohol abuse, depression, self esteem and attachment. This retrospective phenomenological study seeks to find the influence of PA on long-term psychological measures. A correlation between these domains and evidence of parental alienation will be drawn from evidence obtained through a survey. The authors embarked to investigate the differences between those who reported an experience of PA and those who did not. The population of interest is composed of adult children who experienced divorce at childhood. The researchers seek to identify symptoms of parental alienation syndrome from the study subjects. In recruiting sample subject in the study, the researchers have used convenience sampling. Convenience sampling enables the recruitment of study subjects in a location where they are most likely to be found. This is because the sample the researcher is interested in may not be uniformly distributed in the general population. The sampling thus is done by recruiting potential subjects from social networking websites and Listerv groups which have specialized in adult children of divorce. In adopting this sampling technique, the authors are aware that the population of interest is not evenly distributed in the general population and convenience sampling will ensure sample size is saturated making it reliable and representative of the population of interest. This is vital in transferring the findings to population of interest. This correlation study seeks to investigate relations between various variables that are measures of effect of PA in adult childhood. It is possible that there may be no correlation, or there may be a positive or negative correlation. Two prominent research designs employed in correlation studies include naturalistic observation and survey method. Albeit, the former may have offered the best chance to the researchers to interact with research subjects in the field thereby providing them with rich information in natural setting, its cost its prohibitive. Therefore, a survey method was used in this study since it requires less time to implement and promises enough sample subjects within the limited. It suffers from drawbacks of the study subjects not being sincere and therefore ay sometimes produces bias results. This is when it is compared to naturalistic observation research design. Another drawback is that the method will depend on the question the investigator poses to the subjects and bias may arise at this stage or else if the questions are not well placed, less information is obtained. In the current research paper, a survey method was used in the form of structured questionnaires. Participants were recruited through a convenience sampling. As the authors concur, the methodology is relatively cheap in collecting substantial large amount of data within short periods. Individuals who responded to the survey (150 individuals) were regarded as the raw data and out of these 188 were included in the data analysis as they are the ones who completed the survey. The sampling thus was random thereby ensuring there was no bias in the study. Convenience sampling technique was applied in recruiting study subjects from specialized social websites and flyers sent through friends so as to as to reach out to the population of interest. The result seeking to investigate differences in the PA and No-PA group reported significant (p < 0.05) statistical difference in the two groups in terms of educational attainment, in school or working, self-sufficiency, likelihood of completing four years of college, likelihood of being employed (Ben-Ami and Baker, 2012). For instance, the studies reports that the PA group had high probability of not completing the four college years as compared to the No-PA. In addition, it was evident from the study that the PA group also was more likely to be unemployed. Self-sufficiency was sufficiently diminished in this group whereas the No-PA group was more self-sufficient. Parental alienation was also seen to be linked to major depressive disorder as well as low self-esteem among the PA group. The outcome is an unfortunate incidence in children. Most worrying is the conflicts that precipitates before the actual divorce and the behaviors of parents towards each other. Denigration of one parent by the other may lead to parental alienation syndrome in adulthood for the children. Indoctrination with negativity towards one of the parents and the shaping of the childhood opinion is a major cause of parental alienation syndrome (PAS). This syndrome is disastrous towards various domains of the adult childhood leading to a decay of his/her general well-being. This review is of the opinion that to establish theory of PAS more study needs to be done especially naturalistic observation studies though expensive in order to counter the limitation of a survey based methodology where participants may affect study outcome. The participants in a survey may be at liberty to affect the validity of the findings. However, more surveys need to be undertaken to ensure findings are reliable. In view of this research, measures need to be put place to curb conflict between parents either pre- or post-divorce period with the objective of protecting the feud from spilling over to children since it will adversely affect their adult social life. Parental alienation may be passive or active. Awareness need to be raised to prevent passive cases of PA, though in the active cases restraining measures need to be implemented.         The study ignites efforts towards more elaborate studies to establish different psychological problems besides those identified in this work. For instance, researcher may want to identify association of drug abuse to parental alienation at childhood.  Secondly, empirical studies need to be undertaken to establish various characteristics that are associated with exposure to parental alienation in early childhood. Finally, the study re-ignites more debate focused on parental behavior and its impact towards the adult children of divorce. The study enlightens the society to be concerned on the plight of children of the divorce in with the aim of minimizing parental alienation. As Warshak (2001) concurs, parental alienation syndrome is controversial when it comes to child custody. Literature describes PAS as a disturbance manifested by children after unjustified campaign of denigration of one parent (Gardner, 1998). This campaign is perpetrated by one of the parents. PAS, therefore, may be defined by three features namely; the rejection of the target parent is unjustified, the campaign to reject the target parent perpetrated by PA is persistent rather than just an episode and finally it is as a result of the influence of the non-alienated parent. The effect of parental alienation as evident from this study is not benign rather it has series repercussion on several psychosocial domains which have been defined above. The extent of the PAS will most likely depend on the degree the child has been brainwashed by the PA. Interpersonal functioning of the child is affected directly and this is more evident in adulthood as seen in this review. The onset of signs of parental denigration usually will appear I early adulthood as the child reaches the stages of individualization. Symptoms such as social withdrawal, immaturity and regression in social situation are indicators of parental alienation syndrome. In a modern society, children in adult stage who have had an experience in parental alienation from divorce will often assume hostility and obnoxious behaviour are acceptable behaviors in relationships and other behaviors portrayed by the PA such as deceit and manipulation are part of a normal relationship. Therefore, in reality behaviors and characters depicted by some members of the society may bear their root to childhood upbringing. Psychologist, therefore, are supposed to make judgments on certain behaviors based on a careful examination of their clients history. In curbing the effect of PS in the society, the ideal approach may involve collaboration between the legal and mental fraternities. However, it should be noted that the circumstances leading to PAS may differ from one parent to another and the remedies towards ones family intervention may not work in another. This may happen despite similar symptoms though underlying issues may be different. The research was driven by need to relate different aspects of adulthood well-being that may have been caused by events in pre- or/and post-divorce. The research design is well structured since it engages directly with the population of interest so that it may obtain rich raw information to determine the correlation. The major pillar of any survey study design is based on the questionnaires. The researchers in this work have formulated questionnaire that sought to address pertinent issues linked with PAS and which they retrospectively had established are severely affected following PAS. The researchers allude to the fat that research in this field is not that establish and a survey study may serve as a benchmark for more detailed retrospective and prospective studies such as naturalistic observation.   In conclusion, the research serves as an eye-opener to an area which has been less explored to relate different psychological tendencies in children of divorce. This will provide clear guidelines in dealing with perpetrators since the denigration of a parent comes at an extra cost to the child. This study informs stakeholders in family matters to probe such behaviors since they are highly linked to diminished well-being in adult life.   References Ben-Ami, Naomi and Baker, Amy J.L. (2012). The Long-Term Correlates of Childhood Exposure to Parental Alienation on Adult Self-Sufficiency and Well Being” The American Journal of Family Therapy 40: 169-183. Gardner, R.A. (1998). The Parental Alienation Syndrome: A Guide for Mental Health and Legal Professionals (2nd Ed.). Cresskill, NJ, Creative Therapeutics Warshak, R.A. (2001). Current Controversies Regarding Parental Alienation Syndrome. American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 19 (3): 29-59. Read More