Researchers from Manchester and Canada have shown that the claim by the authors of a study published earlier this year that most of its participants had experienced parental alienating behaviors during childhood is seriously misleading. Claims in the study that people affected by parental alienating behaviors showed greater signs of stress, PTSD and depression are also challenged by the team from The University of Manchester and the University of New Brunswick.
Lead author doctoral researcher Nic Robson, along with Dr. Elizabeth Dalgarno, both from The University of Manchester, and Professor Linda Neilson from the University of New Brunswick, have published a peer-reviewed rebuttal in the Journal of Family Trauma, Child Custody & Child Development of the February study led by Professor Ben Hine.
The researchers found a lack of evidence in the Hine study that the behaviors were identified by a dependable sample of the U.K. public and a lack of evidence that the identified parenting behaviors were actually connected to parental alienation.
The authors of the rebuttal contend that methodological standards typically associated with academic or scientific research were not met. Other limitations identified by the researchers included:
