This article, published in the American Psychological Association journal, Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, addresses concerns that some children are incorrectly identified as alienated, and some parents are falsely accused of alienating behavior. The greater the prevalence of errors, the more courts will view claims of parental alienation with skepticism. To guard against such errors this article emphasizes the importance of thoroughly investigating reasonable alternative explanations of children’s and parents’ behaviors. Such an investigation includes attention to seven criteria that distinguish irrationally alienated children from children whose negative or rejecting behaviors do not constitute parental alienation.

The article also lists and discusses a dozen areas of methodologically rigorous research on psychological processes and parenting styles that characterize parental alienating behaviors and their impact on children. Dr. Warshak’s goal in writing this article was to reduce the incidence of false positive identifications of parental alienation, decrease skepticism about parental alienation claims, and reinforce the importance of attending to signs that a child is being taught to hate a parent.

This journal article is included in Dr. Warshak’s forthcoming book, The Psychology of Alienated Children: When Children Reject Parents, Volume 1 of the Collected Papers of Richard A. Warshak. The book will be available in January 2026 and links for purchase will be on warshak.com.

The Psychology of Alienated Children conveniently brings together, in one low-cost volume, 15 of my most important papers on parental alienation.  For some time, I have been concerned about the high cost to parents and professionals who want copies of certain published articles and book chapters. One chapter in this book is available only from its legal publisher through the subscription price of $976. Another chapter is unavailable at any price. The remaining 13 chapters would cost $562 if acquired from the publishers of the original papers.

The publisher of The Psychology of Alienated Children agreed to keep the price below $50 to be accessible to those who need this material. I hope this will be a useful addition to your library.

Because the article is part of the forthcoming volume, I can no longer offer the manuscript for download. If you cannot purchase the book, the article is available for purchase directly from the publisher, or you can ask your local public library to add it to their collection.