Alienated children in family law disputes in British Columbia /

As a result, the legal issues triggered by separation cannot be approached as if the totality of the information necessary to address them is contained in the governing legislation, the rules of court and the parties’ financial statements. [...] This puts the child in a loyalty bind by forcing the child to make the choice to see the rejected parent, knowing that the favoured parent doesn’t want the child to go at all.). [...] Baker and Ben-Ami looked at the long-term effects of alienation by examining the effect of common alienation strategies – such as badmouthing the rejected parent, telling the child the rejected parent is unsafe, and limiting contact with the rejected parent – on 118 adults who were children of divorce. [...] Although the term “alienation” is value-neutral and merely describes the separation of a person or thing, in the remainder of this paper, I will use the term to refer specifically to situations in which a person has intentionally acted to sever or damage the relationship of a child with a parent. [...] I will refer to the parent whose relationship with the child has been severed as the “rejected parent,” regardless of whether the relationship was severed because of alienation or estrangement, and to the other parent as the “favoured parent.” III.