Parental Alienation and Suicide – A Case for Further Research

Abstract

Parental alienation (PA) is a form of intimate partner violence (IPV) and a form of child abuse. Targeted parents, those who are having their children alienated from them, are at higher risk for mental health impacts such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, (Harman, Kruk, & Hines, 2018). This paper focuses on the targeted parents and their 23% chance of attempting suicide at least once (Lee-Maturana, Matthewson, & Dwan, 2020), which puts that population at 288 times increased risk over the general Canadian population for attempted suicide. Looking beyond common DSM diagnoses leads to the consideration of how both types of ambiguous loss, (physical and psychological), as well as moral injuries may contribute to death by suicide in targeted parents. Moral injuries are a known pathway to deaths by suicide in veterans, could the same pathway be present in targeted parents? When targeted parents take their own life, it may be a death of despair resulting from what is perceived as hopelessness in their situation. While there are suicide risk profiles associated with alienated children, and alienating parents, this paper will focus on potential pathways that targeted parents die by suicide. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms leading to suicide or attempted suicide in targeted parents so that treatments or preventative measures can be put in place.