In my master’s thesis, I explore the phenomenon of parental alienation, where I am particularly interested in the situation of the child and the role of social work. In the first part, I investigate how parental alienation has taken place in families, what the procedure at the social work centre and the court has been in each case, what help and support the alienated parents need and what it is that they have missed so far. In the second part, with the help of female professionals working in social work centres, I explore what approaches and skills professionals use when working with families with parental alienation, how the child’s voice is taken into account, and what support is needed by professionals when working with families with parental alienation. The theoretical part covers the topics of marriage separation and/or divorce, the best interests of the child, the child’s opinion, the child before the judicial authorities, the child at the centre of the conflict, and parental alienation. Finally, the topic of social work with the family, both with the parents and with the child, is also covered. In the empirical part, I present the methodology of the research carried out. I then present the results obtained through a semi-standardised interview. The interviews were carried out with 12 interviewees, six of whom were parents with experience of parental alienation and six female professionals working at the social work centre in the field of family work. The results showed that parental alienation mostly occurs after parents separate and/or after one parent leaves the family home. When there are more children in the family, the older children are more likely to be alienated. The social work centre is not the institution to which parents who have experienced alienation turn for help and support; on the contrary, it is the social work centre with which parents are most dissatisfied. The procedures at the social work centre and consequently in court take a very long time. When working with parents, professionals put the child and its best interests at the centre of their work. The child’s voice is heard and taken into account in the process of support and assistance by the professionals. The professionals have no difficulty in recognising parental alienation, but they do have difficulty in ensuring that others working with the families recognise it as well. When working with families, professionals face personal difficulties and dilemmas related to both professional work and parents as well as court proceedings.
|
