Parental alienation: Targeted parent experience in Turkey

This study aimed to investigate Turkish targeted parents’ experience of alienating tactics used in the process of being alienated from their child. The study also aimed to explore targeted parents’ thoughts on the services they have received from mental health and legal professionals that they encountered during the process of family separation. Eighty-four targeted parents completed an online survey. The survey consisted of questions pertaining to sociodemographic information, questions developed by the researchers asking about the targeted parents’ experiences, and questions regarding 13 alienation tactics described in the literature. The majority of participants were male (94%), with an average age of 42 years. Participants reported they had been exposed to many alienating tactics and almost half of the participants had not seen their child despite the existence of court ordered visitation. Half of the participants had been referred to mental health professionals during the divorce process, with the majority of these participants of the opinion that these professionals had insufficient knowledge of parental alienation. Further, most participants thought that the legal professionals they encountered had insufficient knowledge of parental alienation. Participants also reported feeling hopeless, desperate, lonely, anxious, and unable to enjoy life. These findings are consistent with research with participants from other countries.