engleski

Professionals’ decision-making in post-divorce conflict: Effects of parent’s alienating behaviors, co-operativnes with professionals and child’s adjustment

Emotional abuse of children in the process of divorce and professionals’ decision-making in response to parental manipulation of the child’s affections toward the other parent are highly relevant yet underresearched areas. This study examines the effects of parental manipulative behaviours and other parent- and child-related case factors on professionals’ responses to case – vignettes of potential emotional abuse. Each vignette contains information on three independent variables: form of the parent's manipulative behavior, the child's psychosocial adjustment, and the parent's cooperativeness with the professional. Six forms of parents’ manipulative behaviors (parental alienation strategies) are included (Warshak, 2010): (1) infringing on the other parent's time, (2) selective attention to other parent’s negative characteristics, (3) transferring the decision-making power onto the child, (4) overindulging the child, (5) discrediting the other parent, (6) encouraging the child to spy on the other parent. The other two independent variables each have two levels. Dependent variables were assessments of risk to the child and need to undertake four types of intervention, including filing a criminal complaint against the parent for emotional abuse of the child. Participants are 198 professionals (113 social workers and 85 psychologists) from 80 social welfare centers throughout Croatia who participate in the child protection decision-making process in cases of divorce. In sum, the level of risk of emotional abuse to the child when parent 'encouraged the child to spy' on the other parent, professionals assessed as high, and significantly higher than with regard to other, indirect forms of the parent's manipulative behaviours. In the above case, professionals tended to support the measure of filing a criminal complaint against the parent. Results also revealed consistent main effects of the child’s psychosocial adjustment as well as the parent’s cooperativeness on professionals’ assessments of risk to the child, regardless of the form of the parent's manipulative behavior described in each vignette. With respect to professionals’ ratings of necessary interventions, the effects of child’s adjustment and parent’s cooperativeness vary in relation to the form of manipulative behavior, as well as to the proposed intervention.

emotional child abuse, divorce, professionals' decision-making, alienated child

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