The Trouble with Harman and Lorandos’ Parental Alienation Allegations in Family Court Study (2020)

• Published in: Journal of family trauma, child custody & child development (Print) child custody & child development (Print), 2022, Vol.19 (3-4), p.295-317
• Main Authors: Meier, Joan S., Dickson, Sean, O’Sullivan, Chris S., Rosen, Leora N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alienation; Allegations; Child abuse & neglect; Courts; Domestic violence; Families & family life; Family law; Fathers; Misrepresentation; Parent-child relations; Sexism; Statistics
• ISSN: 2690-4586; 2690-4594
• DOI: 10.1080/26904586.2022.2036286

Harman and Lorandos assert that they have produced a study analyzing custody cases involving alienation allegations, which “disconfirms” the findings from our study of family court outcomes in cases involving abuse and alienation. In addition to pointing out the authors’ misrepresentation and mis-reporting of some of their findings, this Response details a series of profound flaws in their study’s design, dataset construction and variable coding, interpretations and analytic approach, as well as a series of statistical errors. The statistical analyses demonstrate that Harman and Lorandos’ five findings of a gender bias in favor of fathers are not supported by their data; the only statistically significant findings that persist after re-analysis of the correct data are consistent with the Meier et al. study. These pervasive design and methodological errors undermine both the appearance and assertion of rigor in their approach; these problems and the foundational differences in their dataset from our own disqualify their study from serving as any kind of credible test or disconfirmation of our study.