Post by Kevin on May 3, 2011 9:57:15 GMT -5
Dear Kevin,
Thank you for your email. We looked at your website and thought you might be interested in what we know about verbal abuse or parental alienation. Both of these terms are difficult to define and there is much debate about what they consist of, their extent and, in the case of "parental alienation syndrome" whether they can be said to exist at all.
Verbal abuse can also be understood as emotional abuse, although not all emotional abuse is necessarily verbal, there being an element of emotional abuse in all of the other forms. Parental alienation is the term used to describe one parent corrupting a child against the other parent. Emotional abuse is a separate issue, although clearly many forms of cruelty can overlap.
The NSPCC website contains the following research on emotional abuse, from 2002:
www.nspcc.org.uk/inform/research/briefings/emotionalabuse_wda48215.html
The NSPCC recognises the definition of emotional abuse as given in the UK Government publication Working together to Safeguard Children (Dept of Health, Department for Education and Employment 1999)
"Emotional abuse if the persistent emotional ill-treatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child's emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. It may involve causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation of corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of ill treatment of a child, though it may occur alone."
If the actions of a parent in attempting to alienate a child from another parent amount to persistent emotional ill treatment so as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child's emotional development, then the NSPCC agree that these actions are abusive and come under the category of emotional abuse. It does not follow, however that in all cases where a child has become alienated from one of their parents that emotional abuse by the non-alienated parent has taken place. In some cases children become alienated from a parent because of that parents own actions or attitudes. At the time of writing there is no clear consensus about one parent alienating a child against the other, and researchers have differing opinions as to how often it occurs or whether it can be strictly classified as a syndrome.
We hope this gives you more insight into our position on these subjects. Thank you once again for contacting us.
Regards
Duty Enquiries Officer
NSPCC Information Service
Weston House
42 Curtain Rd
London EC2A 3NH
Thank you for your email. We looked at your website and thought you might be interested in what we know about verbal abuse or parental alienation. Both of these terms are difficult to define and there is much debate about what they consist of, their extent and, in the case of "parental alienation syndrome" whether they can be said to exist at all.
Verbal abuse can also be understood as emotional abuse, although not all emotional abuse is necessarily verbal, there being an element of emotional abuse in all of the other forms. Parental alienation is the term used to describe one parent corrupting a child against the other parent. Emotional abuse is a separate issue, although clearly many forms of cruelty can overlap.
The NSPCC website contains the following research on emotional abuse, from 2002:
www.nspcc.org.uk/inform/research/briefings/emotionalabuse_wda48215.html
The NSPCC recognises the definition of emotional abuse as given in the UK Government publication Working together to Safeguard Children (Dept of Health, Department for Education and Employment 1999)
"Emotional abuse if the persistent emotional ill-treatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child's emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. It may involve causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation of corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of ill treatment of a child, though it may occur alone."
If the actions of a parent in attempting to alienate a child from another parent amount to persistent emotional ill treatment so as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child's emotional development, then the NSPCC agree that these actions are abusive and come under the category of emotional abuse. It does not follow, however that in all cases where a child has become alienated from one of their parents that emotional abuse by the non-alienated parent has taken place. In some cases children become alienated from a parent because of that parents own actions or attitudes. At the time of writing there is no clear consensus about one parent alienating a child against the other, and researchers have differing opinions as to how often it occurs or whether it can be strictly classified as a syndrome.
We hope this gives you more insight into our position on these subjects. Thank you once again for contacting us.
Regards
Duty Enquiries Officer
NSPCC Information Service
Weston House
42 Curtain Rd
London EC2A 3NH