A number of questions need to be addressed through research.
However, little empirical research has yet been reported. As Rand's review ( 3) makes clear, an increasing number of theoretical writings, case studies, and anecdotal accounts related to this phenomenon have begun to appear in the literature, some of which use the term PAS ( 6-8) and others which use different terminology ( 4, 5, 9, 10). Such dynamics are very familiar to clinicians who work with broken families and who perform custody evaluations. According to Gardner, the child becomes aware that the alienating parent wants him or her to hate the other parent and, out of the need to please the alienating parent and to avoid abandonment or rejection, the child joins in the denigration of the other parent. More extreme alienating behaviors include making false accusations of sexual or physical abuse and programming the child to believe that the abuse occurred. Gardner and others ( 4, 5) have described numerous behaviors the alienating parent may engage in to harm the child's relationship with the other parent, many of which have been described as "programming" or "brainwashing." For example, the alienating parent is likely to make accusations about the other parent in front of the child, describe the other parent as dangerous or harmful, tell the child that the other parent does not love him or her, and greatly exaggerate the other parent's faults (whether real or imagined). Rand ( 3) recently provided an extensive review of the literature relevant to this phenomenon, broadening the scope to include writing which described the same or similar Concepts without using Gardner's term. Parental alienation syndrome is a term coined by Gardner ( 1, 2) for the phenomenon in which a child from a broken marriage becomes alienated from one parent due to the active efforts of the other parent to sever their relationship. Implications of this finding regarding possible personality disorders in PAS parents are discussed. It was concluded that parents who engage in alienating behaviors are more likely than other parents to use the psychological defenses of denial and projection, which are associated with this validity scale pattern. Using female subjects, since few males were available, the hypothesis was confirmed for K and F scales, indicating that PAS parents are more likely to complete MMPI-2 questions in a defensive manner, striving to appear as flawless as possible. It was hypothesized that PAS parents would have significantly higher L and K scales and a significantly lower F scale than parents who do not engage in these behaviors. MMPI-2 validity scales of two groups of parents going through child custody evaluations, parents who engage in parental alienation syndrome (PAS) behaviors and parents who do not, were compared.
MMPI-2 VALIDITY SCALES AND SUSPECTED PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROMEīy Jeffrey C.
LangfordĪMERICAN JOURNAL OF FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY, Volume 16, Number 4, 1998, p.
MMPI-2 Validty Scales and Suspected Parental Alienation Syndrome by Jeffrey C.