Treatment considerations for parental alienation: Summarising published literature

The aim of this contribution is to review the published literature on interventions for Parental Alienation (PA) and their effectiveness. PA is the term used to describe a family dynamic characterised by specific behaviours engaged in by one parent which could result in a child's unjustified rejection of the other parent. Families involved in a PA dynamic present with short and long term clinical symptoms which are extremely resistant to conventional methods of individual or family therapy. Consequently, a number of interventions specifically targeted at children who refuse contact with a parent, and their family, have been developed in clinical and forensic settings. A systematic search of existing literature on Scopus, Web of Science, PsycArticles, and PubMed databases was conducted. PRISMA guidelines were followed, and inclusion/exclusion criteria were established. Peer-reviewed sources were also integrated with a manual search for further results. Initial searches identified 520 publications of which 24 were eligible for inclusion. Interventions within this field are reviewed, and categorized in the following three categories: change of custody and reunification programs; psychotherapy; psychological counselling. The effectiveness of these interventions has been analysed in a relatively low number of studies, almost always affected by methodological limitations. The use of these publications to derive specific recommendations on the use of psychological interventions for the management of PA is discussed. The review concludes with future directions for the development of an evidence-base approach to the psychological support for families involved in PA.