The Biology of Parental Influence: Manipulation or Nurture?

Parental alienation is when one parent manipulates the child into distancing themselves from the other parent. But does this leave detectable biological evidence?

After a breakup, it is not at all uncommon for one parent to manipulate one or more of the former couple’s children into distancing themselves from the other parent. This is called parental alienation (PA). But this kind of manipulation is often difficult to prove. Can biological markers perhaps reveal it? An international research team from Norway, Ukraine and France wants to find out.

“We are presenting a proposal for how we can develop molecular tests to identify parental alienation,” says Professor Denis Kainov at the Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine at NTNU.

The researchers have published a paper on this topic in Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences.

Testing for biological markers

“Chronic stress in children who are exposed to parental alienation leaves measurable biological traces,” the paper says.

The researchers have identified different biological markers that could be tested for. These markers relate to six interconnected biological processes: activation of hormones, neurotransmitters, inflammation, substances that are secreted by stress, changes in the gut flora and chemical markers that regulate gene activity.

“If we achieve this, the findings can help clinicians detect harm earlier and provide the courts with objective documentation in parental disputes with a high degree of conflict,” says Kainov.

Parental alienation a controversial hypothesis

However, parental alienation as an identifiable biological condition is not supported by all research communities. The Swedish Wikipedia page even calls it a “pseudoscientific research model.”

“Parental alienation is not recognized in many countries. But this is a new step to raise awareness of the problem. We have to start somewhere. If this is possible, GPs could take samples in connection with divorce or other parental conflicts to protect the children,” says Professor Magnar Bjørås at the Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine at NTNU.

The researchers emphasize that there are currently few long-term studies that are specific to parental alienation. They therefore believe that the next step must be to develop standardized protocols for children, test the findings in larger patient groups and strengthen the collaboration between doctors, psychologists and legal professionals. This would enable the tests to later be used in practice.