1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The purpose of the study was to assess the extent of the phenomenon whereby abused women are perceived as ''engaging in parental alienation'' from the perspectives of workers in domestic violence shelters […].» (p. 121)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
The sample contains 30 Quebec’s shelters workers.

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

«The research findings that are presented in this article demonstrate that some abused women are labeled as ''engaging in parental alienation'', confirming concerns that have previously been raised by shelter workers (Lapierre, & Fédération des ressources d’hébergement pour femmes violentées et en difficulté du Québec, FRHFVDQ, 2013; Lapierre et al., in press). [T]he research findings also show that accusations of ''parental alienation'' come from the women’s former partners – i.e. the domestic violence perpetrators – as well as from professionals in the child protection, the family court and the criminal justice systems. Therefore, there seems to be a significant number of lawyers, judges, child protection workers, therapists and psychologists who deploy the concept of ''parental alienation'' in their everyday practices with abused women, even though commentators have questioned the theoretical and the empirical foundations of the work conducted in the area (see Adams, 2006; Bensussan, 2009; Bruch, 2001; Faller, 1998; Harris, 2014; Hoult, 2006; Meier, 2009b; Rand, 2010; Romito, 2011) and have clearly stated that it should not be used in situations where there has been a history of domestic violence (Berg, 2011; Dalton et al., 2006; Meier, 2009a; Walker & Shapiro, 2010).» (p. 125)