Articles + Books
A seminal 12-year study of 700 divorced families was commissioned by the American Bar Association Family Law section in the late 1970s in response to rising concern about “parental programming of children” to influence the outcome of custody disputes. Findings from this study were published in 2003 as Children Held Hostage by Clawar and Rivlin. They found that parental programming was practiced in varying degrees by 80 percent of divorcing parents, with 20 percent of them engaging in such behaviours with their children at least once a day. The problem of parental programming was widespread and even at low levels had significant impact on children.
Many other professionals have written in this area. There are now numerous clinical texts as well as mainstream books about Parental Alienation Syndrome, including:
- Richard A. Warshak, Divorce Poison: Protecting the Parent-Child Bond from a Vindictive Ex, 2003 (paperback).
- J. Michael Bone and Michael R. Walsh, Parental Alienation Syndrome: How to Detect It and What to Do About It, 1999.
- Douglas Darnall, Divorce Casualties: Protecting Your Children From Parental Alienation, 1998.
- Deirdre Conway Rand, The Spectrum of Parental Alienation Syndrome (Part 1), American Journal of Forensic Psychology, Vol 15, Number 3, 1997.
- Richard A. Gardner, The Parental Alienation Syndrome: A Guide for Mental Health and Legal Professionals, 1992.
- Amy J. L. Baker, Adult Children of Parental Alienation Syndrome: Breaking the Ties that Bind, 2007.
- Stanley S. Clawar and Brynne Valerie Rivlin, Children Held Hostage, 2003.