The terms ‘parental alienation’ and ‘alienating behaviours’ are regularly used by family law professionals and the concepts of the meaning of such terms are widely debated within the profession. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of clarity around what these terms actually mean and their use within family law cases. This has led the Family Justice Council (FJC) undertaking a consultation about this topic and their guidance as a result, has recently been published.

The publication provides guidance on responding to a child’s unexplained reluctance, resistance or refusal to spend time with a parent and allegations of alienating behaviour.

The purpose of the FJC’s Guidance is to help the court in dealing with allegations of parental alienation and alienating behaviours. The Guidance provides clarification of appropriate terminology to be used within cases as follows:

Parental Alienation Syndrome – The FJC confirms that this syndrome has no evidential basis and even goes as far as to say that the concept is harmful and exploited within family court cases.

Attachment, affinity and alignment (AAA) – This is where a child may favour one parent over the other due to normal child responses to parenting experience and is not the result of psychological manipulation by a parent.

Appropriate justified Rejection (AJR) – This is where a child’s rejection or reluctance to see one parent is an understandable response to that parent’s behaviour.

Alienating Behaviours (AB) – The FJC define these as ‘psychologically manipulative behaviours, intended or otherwise, by a parent towards a child which have resulted in the child’s RRR to spend time with the other parent. The parent alleging any such behaviours must show and evidence that the other has engaged in manipulative behaviours and that their behaviour has impacted upon the child’s behaviour.

Protective Behaviours (PB) – This is where one parent engages in behaviour to protect the child from abuse or further harm as a consequence of that of the other parent’s abuse.

Reluctance, Resistance and Refusal (RRR) – This refers to a child’s reluctance, resistance or refusal to see one parent. This may have a variety of causes and is not alone evidence of Alienating Behaviours.

The FJC set out clearly that the court needs to be satisfied of 3 elements before it can find that Alienating Behaviours have occurred. These are:

1. The child is reluctant, resisting or refusing to engage in, a relationship with a parent or carer; and
2. The reluctance, resistance or refusal is not consequent on the actions of that parent towards the child or the other parent, which may therefore be an AJR by the child, or is not caused by any other factor such as the child’s AAA; and
3. The other parent has engaged in behaviours that have directly or indirectly impacted on the child, leading to the child’s RRR to engage in a relationship with that parent.

It should be noted that a child’s reluctance, resistance and refusal (RRR) could be caused by any number of factors happening in their life, not least the breakdown of their parent’s relationship which can result in a range of emotional responses by the child. Their reluctance to spend time with one parent cannot in itself be evidence that the other parent has conducted alienating behaviours.

Any finding of alienating behaviour is still only one piece of the puzzle within children proceedings. There are numerous other aspects that must be considered before the court can determine what arrangements are in the child’s best interests.

If you believe that your matter is being affected by Alienating Behaviours and would like to discuss this further, then please do get in touch and we would be happy to assist.  

Consultation

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