MMPI-2 Profiles of Mothers Engaged in Parental Alienation

Abstract

Parental alienation (PA) describes a family dynamic in which a parent engages in behaviors that are likely to foster a child’s unjustified rejection of the other parent. PA is considered a particular form of child psychological maltreatment with both short- and long-term negative consequences. Parents who attempt to turn a child against the other parent in cases of separation/divorce can be difficult to identify. Increasing our understanding of the personality features of these parents via psychological assessment may enable us to identify PA more quickly following the onset of abuse. In the present study, the personality characteristics of mothers engaging in PA were examined through a comparative analysis of MMPI-2 profiles. The results indicated that alienating mothers presented higher moral virtue and extroversion. They were more vulnerable to interpersonal stress and they demonstrated unsuccessful self-representation. The findings provide a preliminary model for understanding the profile of mothers who engage in PA.

A Comparison of MMPI-2 Profiles Between Parental Alienation Cases and Custody Cases

“…Our data suggests that these characteristics were the strongest predictors of alienating behaviors. These results are in line with the previous study by Roma et al (2020a), which found that mothers classified as alienating showed psychological profiles characterized by a high selffavorable bias (i.e., a tendency to present an image of adequacy and self-control that is incompatible with real life), rigid moral values, greater sensitivity to criticism, susceptibility to others' behaviors, and a tendency to deny negative dispositions in others.…”

“…Furthermore, they had a greater tendency to deny faults and complaints (K scale), and they were more likely to exaggerate their benevolence and morality (S scale). These results were recently confirmed by research on mothers' MMPI-2 personality traits in 58 parental alienation cases (Roma et al, 2020a).…”

“…Starting from the results of Roma et al (2020a) study, which analyzed 58 mothers classified as alienating according to the MMPI-2 dimensions of self-representation and narcissism, the present study aimed at improving our knowledge of the self-reported psychological and personality characteristics of parents involved in parental alienation dynamics. To the best of our knowledge, no other study has analyzed the MMPI-2 personality characteristics of preferred and targeted child custody litigant parents.…”

A study on the psychological assessment of young children based on multivariate statistical analysis

“…On the one hand, it is necessary to determine the child's psychological development, and on the other hand, it is necessary to identify the presence of behavioral problems and psychological developmental disorders so that early education, early intervention, and early treatment can be targeted [4][5]. There are many types of psychological assessments for young children, which are divided into cognitive, such as perceptual, language tests, emotional-behavioral assessments, aptitude tests, and personality tests according to the psychological domains involved [6][7][8]. They are divided into interview, observation, test, and questionnaire methods according to the form of assessment, screening, and diagnostic assessments according to the accuracy of the assessment, and textual and non-textual test materials.…”

“…If we set the joint control domain of the elementary variables to be and take the significant level in the control process, the relationship between the significant level and the control domain is satisfied as follows: (7) The normal distribution has symmetry and its distribution density is equal everywhere on the boundary of the control domain . Thus when the significant level is determined, the variation is: (8) Where is the constant corresponding to . Bringing equation (7) into equation ( 8), we get:…”