The perceived effects of parental alienation on adult children’s socioemotional development in the Maltese context

Abstract

This qualitative retrospective study offers an idiographic approach to the exploration of the lived experiences of twelve Maltese adults who had experienced Parental Alienation (PA) when they were younger. Recruitment was through purposive sampling in which only people who had experienced PA in their childhood and were aware of their experience were preferentially selected. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this study explored how the participants’ experience with PA has impacted their life, paying special attention to their socioemotional development, extending present understanding of this phenomenon to the Maltese context. The audio-recorded interviews were then transcribed verbatim into text which became the data for analysis. The data were analysed through qualitative thematic analysis as outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006) while also including and applying a phenomenological approach to the data analysis. Five overarching themes and fifteen subthemes were identified during the analysis process. The main themes derived from the interview are 'Experience with alienating behaviours’, 'Mental health difficulties', 'Losses experienced', 'Relationship difficulties' and 'Healing and resilience'. The results attained in this study suggested that exposure to PA in early childhood and adolescence led the participants to experience low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, trust issues, difficulty in building relationships with peers and significant others and losses felt in childhood that continued well into adulthood. These findings indicated that exposure to PA did have significant effects on the participants’ socioemotional wellbeing.