Parental alienation as a risk factor for delinquency

Since parental alienation syndrome (PAS) was not adopted as an official diagnosis to be introduced in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Diseases, Fifth Edition (DSM-5)released in 2013 by The American Psychiatric Association (APA), culminating a 14 year revision process-it means that PAS did not meet the proposed criteria for its diagnosis. On the other hand in our country The Psychologists' College of Romania (regulatory authority for the practice of psychology) recently issued and published a regulation in The Official Journal of Romania that recognizes parental alienation (PA) as "a form of severe psychological (emotional) child abuse consisting of systematic denigration of a parent by the other parent, with the intention of alienating the child by the other parent".[1] Among the Romanian professionals persists the fear that labeling children whose parents are engaged in a high-conflict separation or divorce with a mental condition it would be misused in legal settings. The purpose of this article is to address PA from a developmental perspective, to discuss PA as a risk factor for juvenile delinquency and also to discuss shared custody/residence as a protective factor as well as to figure out why parental alienation (PA) is accepted in Romanian courthouse.[1]