Bench Book for Assessing Parental Gatekeeping in Parenting Disputes: Understanding the Dynamics of Gate Closing and Opening for the Best Interests of Children

Safety for Aboriginal Women in Couples Counseling Where There is a History of Intimate Partner Violence

“…In addition to concern about effects of children's exposure to his abuse against her (Overbeek, de Schipper, Lamers-Winkelman, & Schuengel, 2013), she may fear for the child's safety at his hand (Macmillan, Wathen, & Varcoe, 2013) or punitive measures by children's services and potential apprehension (Nixon, Radtke, & Tutty, 2013). These are each elevated in the context of a potential separation and when custody is in dispute (Austin, Fieldstone, & Pruett, 2013), as well as following separation when he has access to the children (Hardesty et al, 2012).…”

“…There is a great deal of literature on safety issues for children and women's efforts to secure their children's safety when they are in an abusive relationship (e.g., Overbeek et al, 2013;Macmillan et al, 2013), in particular during and following a separation where custody and access are in dispute (Austin et al, 2013;Hardesty et al, 2012). In addition, women's relationships with friends (Ahmad et al, 2007), family members (Zink et al, 2006) and neighbors (Renzetti, 2009) were similarly noted.…”

If we knew what happened, we would know better what to do: A commentary on Kleinman and Kaplan's “Relaxation of rules for science detrimental to children”

“…Almost 25 years later, the parental alienation controversy persists, albeit in forms that parallel court reforms in attempting to be less blaming toward parents. The dynamics once singularly and controversially described as "parental alienation syndrome" have evolved into more family systems-oriented ideas of "the alienated child" (Kelly & Johnston, 2001), differential diagnosis including the possibility of affinities and estrangements in parent-child relationships (Drozd & Oleson, 2004), distinctions between justified and unjustified facilitative or restrictive gatekeeping (Austin, Fieldstone, & Pruett, 2013), and behavioral descriptions of what has been labeled the "refuse/resist dynamic" (Friedlander & Walters, 2010).…”

Maternal Gatekeeping

“…Other researchers have conceptualized gatekeeping as a set of behaviors along a continuum that ranges from facilitation to restriction, or gate opening to gate closing (Austin, Fieldstone, & Pruett, 2013). This conceptualization suggests that gatekeeping behaviors have a positive and negative valence, with positive behaviors being associated with facilitation and negative behaviors being associated with restriction.…”

“…This conceptualization suggests that gatekeeping behaviors have a positive and negative valence, with positive behaviors being associated with facilitation and negative behaviors being associated with restriction. Restrictive gatekeeping behavior and attitudes are hypothesized to have the most detriment to the inter-parental relationship and parent-child relationship (Austin et al, 2013). Puhlman and Pasley (2013) presented a new model generated from family systems theory and a feminist perspective on maternal gatekeeping.…”