Complex alienation dynamics and very young children

The alienation of children is a growing concern of those who work with families of high-conflict divorce, with a correspondingly large and expanding literature on the subject in the last few years. There seems to be little question that there exists a subgroup of distressed children of divorce who resist or refuse parenting time, and who cause notable conflict for their families and concern for the courts. Yet alienation remains an issue fraught with disagreement and controversy. There has been ongoing dialogue in the literature about what to call it, with various authors, past and present, offering Parent Alienation Syndrome (Gardner, 1992; Gardner, Sauber, & Lorandos, 2006); child alienation (Kelly & Johnston, 2001); parental alienation (Bow, Gould, & Flens, 2009; Darnall, 1998); and just alienation (Drozd & Olesen, 2004). Most recently, Fidler and Bala…