“It Was the Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back”: Exploring the Distancing Processes Communicatively Constructed in Parent-Child Estrangement Backstories

Parents and Children Who Are Estranged in Adulthood: A Review and Discussion of the Literature

“…Several studies have explored the factors that contribute to estrangement between parents and adult children. These studies have explored the experiences of parents who are estranged from an adult son and/or daughter (Agllias, ; Carr et al, ; Dattilio & Nichols, ; Gilligan et al, ; Jerrome, ; Schwartzman, ) and adult children estranged from a parent (Agllias, ; Scharp & McLaren, ; Scharp & Thomas, ; Scharp et al, ).…”

“…Distance between parents and adult children may also be initiated or exacerbated by physical and/or mental health problems in the family (Agllias, ; Conti, ; Mitrani & Czaja, ; Scharp et al, ). The quality of parent–child relationships has been found to be affected by the poor health of one of the family members (Kaufman & Uhlenberg, ; Pillemer et al, ).…”

“…Research exploring the perspectives of children who are estranged from a parent highlights the complexities and ambiguities inherent in establishing and maintaining distance from a parent (Scharp et al, ). The adult children in this study described feeling pressure from members of their family to reconcile, or a more general pressure to act like a child “should” toward a parent.…”

“…Alongside this research, a literature has emerged in the past 10 years that has focused specifically on parents and adult children who are “estranged” (Agllias, , , , , , ; Agllias & Gray, ; Allen & Moore, ; Carr, Holman, Abetz, Kellas, & Vagnoni, ; Conti, ; Conti & Ryan ; Dattilio & Nichols, ; Gilligan, Suitor, & Pillemer, ; Jerrome, ; Kim, ; Scharp, , ; Scharp & Dorrance Hall, ; Scharp & McLaren, ; Scharp & Thomas, ; Scharp, Thomas, & Paxman, ). This literature confirms that contrary to dominant expectations and assumptions about the involuntary, ever‐lasting nature of family relationships, some parents and children have a distant and/or inactive relationship.…”

Maintaining Open Adoption Relationships: Practitioner Insights on Adoptive Parents’ Regulation of Adoption Kinship Networks

“…Although societal assumptions of family privilege biological ties (Galvin, 2014), here adoptive parents use communication to both include the birth parent in the nuclear family system while simultaneously positioning the biological parent as supplemental to the adoptive family. Just as communication facilitates closeness in diverse families (Galvin, 2006a), individuals can create distance between members through communicative practices (Scharp, 2014;Scharp, Thomas, & Paxman, 2015). In the case of open adoption, genetic relatives are kept at a distance from the adoptive-family subsystem through the management of boundaries, calibration of expectations, and regulation of private information.…”