Methodologies and moon landings: A critical review of parental alienating behavior research

This article critically evaluates the report ‘Examining the prevalence of childhood parental alienating behaviors (PABs) in 18–25-year-old adults in the UK’. The report has generated public interest in the United Kingdom. This paper will demonstrate that the conclusions drawn by the authors of this report are based on poor methodologies including use of outdated psychological scales, biased sample populations, inaccurate statistical analysis, an absence of research methods that would enable discussions of cause and effect and a failure to apply reliable and replicable research standards. Inconsistencies between the data reported and some of the basic premises associated with parental alienation call into question the usefulness of using parental alienation as an analytical framework.