Couple conflict, which includes conflict over parenting practices, continues to be a topic of considerable interest to family therapists. Following parental separation, resolution or management of conflict over children has a special urgency. 'High-conflict' cases present some of the most complex systemic and clinical challenges. In this first of two related articles in this issue of ANZJFT, we set out key ideassome old, some newabout parental conflict from the divorce literature. We present Australian data on separated parents' reports, which found significant conflict at three different points in time after separation and consider the clinical implications. We suggest that while 'high conflict' has an intuitive feel as a descriptor for difficult post-separation disputes, it has limited utility as a blanket term to inform research and practice. The article acts as a conceptual backdrop to an earlier paper (Smyth & Moloney, 2017), in which we consider the dynamics of enduring 'high conflict. ' We suggest that these cases might be qualitatively different to those cases in which intensely felt disputes develop but then recede. We also suggest that amongst enduring 'high conflict' cases there are likely to be cases with especially challenging dynamics such as interparental hatred.
Key points1 'High-conflict' divorce cases continue to present complex systemic and clinical challenges. 2 Children's responses to being caught in the middle of ongoing high conflict almost invariably come at an emotional and developmental cost. 3 Divorce-related conflict is often complicated by the intersection of several overlapping and mutually reinforcing individual and systemic problems. These include mental health issues, substance/alcohol abuse, family violence, economic and other disruptive transitional stressors, as well as insensitive or poorly executed legal, dispute management, and therapeutic processes. 4 Australian data suggest that at three particular points in time during the first 5 years after separation, an average of one in eight separated parents report 'lots of conflict' in their post separation relationship, while about one in twenty describe their relationship as fearful. However, less than 5% of these parents reported staying in highly conflicted or fearful relationships at all the three points in time. 5 The above data suggest that the majority of separated parents who report 'lots of conflict' are likely to be struggling with relatively predictable, time-limited factors and stressors associated with separation and with normal separation-related grief processes. These issues are likely to be managed or resolved by paying close attention to the emotional as well as the practical drivers of the disputes. 6 As the accompanying article suggests, however, it is likely that the one in twenty parents whose disputes endure over 5 years are being challenged by more dysfunctional or more pathological processes, which can include the phenomenon of interparental hatred. We suggest that for most of these parents, the content of...