Investigation of parental alienation and depression levels of children subject to custody in constructed/contentious divorce cases

Divorce is a phenomenon that increases day by day; It creates serious consequences that affect parents and children.This study aims to determine the levels of parental alienation and depression of children subject to custody in contested and consensual divorce cases, to determine whether there is a difference between the levels of parental alienation and depression of children subject to custody in contested and consensual divorce cases, and to examine the relationship between parental alienation and depression. The sample of the study consists of a total of 100 children who are the subject of a contested divorce case and a consensual divorce case ongoing between 2022/2023 at the Kocaeli Courthouse. Kişisel Bilgi Formu containing socio-demographic information of children and their families was used as data collection tools, Baker Alienation Scale to determine the level of parental alienation and Depression Scale for Children to determine the level of depression. In the study, t-test for independent groups in binary groups, Kruskal-Wallis H analysis in triple group analyses, Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to examine the relationships between depression, parental alienation, child's age, duration of living apart and frequency of meeting with parents. The significance level was taken as .05. As a result of the study, it was concluded that there was no significant difference between the groups in depression and parental alienation scores according to the type of divorce, that there was a relationship between depression and parental alienation in both types of divorce, and that parental alienation predicted depression positively and significantly.