Parental alienation syndrome: Evaluation through children, parents and social workers

Divorce can have negative effects on both parents and children, and sometimes this may cause parental alienation syndrome. In parental alienation syndrome, children become completely alienated from one of their parents and even stop the conversation. Social workers working in the judicial system, on the other hand, they frequently encounter parental alienation syndrome because they work closely with divorce and custody cases. When the literature on the subject is examined, very few studies on parental alienation syndrome have been found in Turkey. Thus, the research aims to understand to what extent parental alienation syndrome affects parents and children and the role of social workers in this situation. In line with the information's obtained from the research, suggestions are made for more effective work on parental alienation and micro and macro suggestions for the parents. In the research designed with the qualitative research method, a semi-structured interview form was used about the experiences of parents, children and social workers, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 28 people. The interviews with 9 social workers, 10 parents and 9 children were analysed in line with theoretical knowledge. The results of the research were discussed under three main headings in line with the information obtained from social workers, parents and children. When the results were examined, it was seen that the parental alienation syndrome had negative effects on the lives of individuals and children, and especially the children had stopped communicating with their parents. On the other hand, it has been observed that social workers are frequently faced with parental alienation syndrome and their intervention opportunities are limited.