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Making meaning of parenting from the perspective of alienated parents
Author(s) -
Scharp Kristina M.,
Hansen Russell,
Kubler Kyle F.,
Wang Tiffany R.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/pere.12356
Subject(s) - distancing , alienation , perspective (graphical) , meaning (existential) , dialectic , narrative , psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , meaning making , sociology , covid-19 , epistemology , linguistics , psychotherapist , artificial intelligence , computer science , medicine , philosophy , disease , pathology , political science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
Abstract More than 13% of parents identify as being alienated by at least one of their children. Parental alienation often occurs after divorce when one parent (un)intentionally persuades his or her children to distance themselves from or reject the other parent. This study, couched in relational dialectics theory, explores the meaning of parenting from the perspective of 40 alienated parents. This analysis yielded two competing discourses: the culturally dominant discourse of parental norms (DPN) and the culturally marginalized discourse of parental victimization (DPV). Throughout the narrative interviews, the DPV resisted the DPN in four ways (diachronic separation, entertaining, countering, and negating). This study's findings provide insights into the perspective of the alienated parents, advance what we know about family distancing, and provide practical implications.