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Despite the multiple critiques that have been addressed to the concept of ‘parental alienation’ , evidence suggests an increased popularity in recent years. Abused women who seek protection can be labelled as ‘alienating’ mothers. This article investigates the impacts of ‘parental alienation’ allegations on women and children who have experienced domestic violence, focusing on the impacts on mother-child relationships. It draws upon findings from a study that involved multiple case studies conducted with women who had experienced domestic violence and who had been seen as ‘engaging in parental alienation’. For these women, the allegations of ‘parental alienation’ had had negative and sometimes dramatic impacts on the relationships with their children. First, the allegations had resulted in limited or no contact between women and their children. Second, the allegations had limited mother-child communication and had made it more complicated. Third, the allegations had limited women’s ability to protect their children. Fourth, some women reported changes in their children’s behaviours, as some children had expressed feelings of frustration and anger as a result of this situation. The fifth theme emerging from the data was a collection of strategies women used to protect and support their children despite these allegations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discipline of sociology faces important challenges that may result in a transformation of the field. For example, the practice of specialization potentially takes on a new meaning in the context of growing interdisciplinary studies, the growth of feminist scholarship, and renewed efforts at micro-macro linkages. In essence, more comprehensive accounts of social phenomena are made possible as a result of these trends. This paper examines the way in which such approaches may lead to advances in the study of political action.