Parental Alienation Syndrome as factor when determining care and/or contact of children in divorce

Abstract

With an alarmingly high divorce rate, together with the rise in high conflict disputes regarding the care and contact of children, there has never been a greater need to emphasise children's emotional and psychological well-being and safety. There is a general assumption that parents act in the best interests of their children. However, when staring down the barrel of a high conflict, divorce leads many parents to be blinded by their own emotional turmoil. This poses a significant risk to the child caught in the middle of the proceedings with two parents competing in a litigious deathmatch fuelled by their hatred. A rising phenomenon is one where children completely and irrationally reject a parent after separation or divorce despite a history of a previously established healthy and loving relationship. When this happens, it is often accompanied by allegations of physical, sexual and severe emotional abuse. However, often upon investigation, no evidence of abuse or former abuse can be found. In cases like this, it is often found that the child is a victim of Parental Alienation Syndrome. This occurs when a child is used as a pawn to gain favour in a divorce matter. One parent brainwashes a child, consciously or unconsciously, to enter a campaign of denigration against the other parent. This aims to harm and effectively destroy the relationship between the child and the rejected parent. PAS is a malicious form of emotional- and psychological abuse that has yet to be properly addressed due to controversial opinions on the matter. In terms of the best interests of a child standard, South African courts have an international obligation to afford proper consideration to the phenomenon.