Find My Parent

Can you imagine growing up without the love of your father or mother?

Parental alienation and abduction – two closely linked social issues – affect a growing number of children around the world. At least 13 million children are alienated in the US alone. Family abduction is much more common than stranger abduction with at least 230,000 children abducted by a family member every year!

What exactly is Parental Alienation?

Not exactly sure what parental alienation is? Simply put, it is when on parent intentionally damages their child’s relationship with the other parent and turns their child against the other parent. It is when a child refuses to have a relationship with their other parent because of the manipulation of the other parent. That parent will often share false and exaggerated negative information about the other parent.

The parent may do it by:

⦁ Telling the child that the other parent hates the child or does not want to speak with the child when, in reality, that parent wants and tries to speak with the child.
⦁ Convincing a child that the other parents physically or emotionally abused the child.
⦁ Punishing the child for trying to have a relationship with the other parent.
⦁ Telling the child that the other parent is to blame for the divorce or breakup.

Parental alienation and abduction – two closely linked

(Source: Pew Research, 2019)

How does not having a parent affect the child?

4x Greater Risk of Poverty

7x more likely to become pregnant as a teen

2x more likely to suffer from obesity

2x more likely to drop out of high school

2x greater risk of infant mortality

More likely to commit crime

Curious about what we do to help the situation?

Check out Find My Parent's efforts to reduce parental alienation and abductions.

Parental abduction

What exactly is parental abduction? It is when a parent hides, takes or keeps hold of a child from the other parent. This can happen internationally - for example a parent kidnapping a child from Canada to Egypt - or it can happen within a country’s border – for example taking a child from New York to Florida without telling the other parent.

International parental abduction gets the most attention from media. In reality, it happens a lot within a country’s borders and by parents of the same nationality. In the United States, the Department of Justice estimates that almost a quarter of a million children are abducted by a family member each year. In Japan, one child is abducted by a parent every 2.5 minutes.

Parental abduction is illegal in some countries and legal in others, but it is always harmful to children and families.

When a child is abducted by a parent or family member, that child suffers from depression, anger, low self-esteem, trust issues, sometimes poor school performance and health problems, and fear. These effects often stay with a child for the rest of his or her life.

Children lose access to half of their family – grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. They lose half of their identity, culture and sometimes no longer speak the same language of their second parent.

You can read more about the harm parental abduction does to children in this academic study.

If you have been abducted by a parent or your child has been abducted, here are some steps you can take to get support and reunite with your parent/child.