Grandparent Alienation

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A New Perspective on Grandparent Alienation

Edward Kruk & Hesam Varavel (2025)

Grandparent alienation and the discontinuity of grandparent-grandchild relationships have been largely overlooked in social science research, despite the fact that the salience of the grandparent-grandchild attachment bond is the subject of considerable discussion. This article reports the results of the first-known study examining the experiences of grandparents who have never seen their grandchildren. Sixty four grandparents participated in an in-depth research project examining their lived experiences and the challenges associated with being excluded from the lives of their grandchildren. Results reveal a number of surprising findings, and contrast the experiences of alienated grandparents who have never seen their grandchildren with previous research on grandparents who were alienated subsequent to a pre-existing relationship with their grandchildren. Grandparent alienation has profoundly negative consequences for grandparents, and this has important implications for sociolegal policy and therapeutic practice.

Olivia Bounds & Mandy Matthewson (2022)

Journal of Family Issues

This study explored parental alienating behaviours experienced by grandparents with limited or no contact with their grandchildren.

The key finding in study 1 is grandparents experience the same tactics as targeted parents. They experience Parental Alienating Behaviours (PABs) that are an extension of the ones their children and grandchildren experience. 

In study 2 (not yet published) the impact is devastating because some grandparents may never see their grandchildren again before they die. Then the grandchildren have to live with that loss and guilt for the rest of their lifetime. Some grandparents sacrifice their retirement savings to help their children go to court. They experience the double grief of losing their grandchildren and losing their own children as they knew them. They have double the worry - worry for their grandchildren and their own children’s future. 

Hila Avieli & Inna Levy (2022)

Family Relations | Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science

This study employs the life course perspective to explore the lived experience of grandparents who have no contact with their grandchildren due to parental alienation (PA).

Sadruddin, A., Ponguta, L., Zonderman, A., Wiley, K., Grimshaw, A.,  & Panter-Brick, C. (2019)

Social science & medicine

Grandparents positively influence child health and development through contact, caregiving behaviors, and financial support, but more robust data on their involvement and attention to interpersonal and structural contexts are needed for informed research and policy implementation.

Valarie King (2003)

Journal of Marriage and Family

Grandparents experiencing divorce have weaker bonds to their adult children, but a strong grandparent-parent relationship can compensate for these negative effects.

Barry University

By Carol Golly (2019)

Dissertation

Lifestyles

By Mary Dellmann-Jenkins, Diane Papalia & Martha Lopez (1987)

Waquim, B. (2019).

Psychology and Law.

A Brazilian questionnaire reveals that parental alienation involves both active and passive subjects, including grandparents, brothers, stepfathers, and stepmothers, and can cause psychological or non-psychological damage to children and adolescents.

Mary Dellmann-Jenkins, D. Papalia, Martha Lopez (1987)

Journal of Family and Economic Issues

Teenagers view grandparents as recreational partners and share positive feelings about spending leisure time with them, suggesting a positive change in grandchild-grandparent relationships with adolescence.