Is Parental Alienation a Thing in Illinois Divorce Court?

When parents separate or divorce, emotions run high. Sometimes, those emotions spill over into how children are told to think or feel about the other parent. A parent might subtly (or not so subtly) criticize the other parent in front of the children, block phone calls or visits, or encourage the child to take sides in the divorce. These behaviors are often described by the disfavored parent as “parental alienation.”

But is parental alienation a recognized legal concept in Illinois divorce court? The short answer is no, not really. “Parental alienation” is not a standalone cause of action under Illinois law, nor is it a concept with an accepted legal meaning. It is not addressed anywhere in the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA).

There was a time when the term was used often in family Court, but it has since lost favor amongst judges and legal practitioners due to its overuse and outright abuse. Some parents still cling to the justification that “parental alienation” is the reason that the Court has kept them from their kids, but in fact, Parent-Child Contact Problems are much more complex than the “parental alienation” framework describes.

However, any behavior by a parent that serves to alienate a child from the other parent will be taken into consideration by the Court when making decisions about parental responsibilities and parenting time. In other words, while Illinois law doesn’t use the phrase “parental alienation,” the court will consider the kinds of conduct people describe with that term when it makes decisions about parental responsibilities.

What is Parental Alienation?

Parental alienation is a phrase that is more appropriate in a psychology textbook than a courtroom. It generally refers to a pattern of behavior where one parent manipulates or pressures a child to reject, fear, or dislike the other parent without good cause. Common signs might include:

• A child consistently denigrates or criticizes one parent.
• The child sees one parent as “all good” and the other as “all bad.”
• The child uses phrases or scenarios that appear “borrowed” from the favored parent.
• The child resists contact with one parent.

Courts and experts often note that children caught in this dynamic are “enmeshed” with one parent, taking on their feelings and attitudes. But while this concept is widely discussed in mental health literature, the Court does not generally declare that “alienation” exists and change a parent’s parenting time or decision-making responsibilities on that basis.

Instead, the Court will allocate parenting time and parental responsibilities based on the best interests of the child standard and according to the factors laid out in the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA). The Court will consider witness testimony, expert evaluations, and guardian ad litem (GAL) reports in making its determination.

If it is not Parental Alienation, What is it?

The concept of “parental alienation” has become increasingly controversial within family-law practice and research, prompting leading organizations to call for a shift in both terminology and approach to family conflict. Two such organizations are

• Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC): an interdisciplinary international body of practitioners, researchers and policymakers dedicated to improving family-court processes and outcomes.
• National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ): A U.S.-based organization of judges and court professionals focused on promoting effective administration of juvenile and family justice.

Together, these organizations issued a Joint Statement on “Parent-Child Contact Problems” (PCCPs), signaling a deliberate move away from the narrower term “parental alienation”.

The shift in vocabulary reflects several core concerns. Historically, “parental alienation” has been used to describe a situation in which a child rejects or refuses contact with one parent — often attributed to “brainwashing” or undue influence by the other parent. Critics argue this framing oversimplifies the dynamics and risks mislabeling complex family systems, especially where there may be legitimate concerns of abuse, neglect, or exposure to intimate-partner violence. The AFCC/NCJFCJ statement warns against assuming that “parental alienation” is the determinative explanation for child resistance, particularly when other factors (such as conflict between the parents, safety concerns, third-party influence, developmental issues or trauma) may better explain the child’s behavior.

By recommending the use of “Parent-Child Contact Problems” instead, the organizations emphasize a broader, more child-centered and multi-factor approach. They call on practitioners to adopt a screening and analytic framework that:

• Places the safety, rights and well-being of the child at the forefront;
• Increases professional competence in assessing contact problems;
• Avoids premature labeling of the child’s behavior as “alienation”;
• Carefully considers all contributing factors (including but not limited to parental alienating behaviors, violence, substance misuse, litigation trauma, culture, developmental factors); and
• Tailors services and interventions to the individual case rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all “alienation” paradigm.

Best Interests of the Child

In Illinois, the IMDMA requires courts to allocate major decision-making authority (for education, healthcare, religion, and extracurriculars) based on the child’s best interests. It lists several factors for courts to weigh, including:

• The wishes of the child,
• The parents’ ability to cooperate,
• The child’s needs,
• The mental and physical health of all parties, and
• The level of each parent’s past participation in decision-making.

When a parent refuses to cooperate or actively works to undermine the other parent’s role, that behavior weighs heavily against them.

The IMDMA also addresses how much time each parent gets with the child. It sets a presumption that both parents are fit and that a child benefits from having a meaningful relationship with each of them. Courts must allocate time according to the child’s best interests, using a long list of statutory factors.

According to the IMDMA Section 602.7(b), parenting time can be restricted only if the Court finds by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not) that a parent’s exercise of parenting time would seriously endanger the child’s physical, mental, moral, or emotional health. This is a high bar. It means a parent claiming alienation has to do more than just show badmouthing or conflict — they must prove that the other parent’s conduct is harming the child if they want the other parent’s time to be restricted.

Case Studies from Illinois Appellate Courts

Recent Illinois appellate decisions shed light on how courts handle these issues. Let’s look at three.

1. In re Marriage of Nelson, 2025 IL App (5th) 250001-U

In Nelson, the parents had been married for nearly 20 years and had three teenaged children. In the divorce, Mom was allocated decision-making and all of the parenting time. There had been an incident of domestic battery by Dad against his oldest daughter, and since then, Dad had not seen any of the children.

Dad appealed the trial court’s allocation of parenting time, stating that the Court should have considered how Mom was alienating the children from him. But the Appellate Court was not swayed by that argument. The trial court considered the statutory factors regarding the best interests of the children and were not required to do more. “…the factors the trial court is to consider are listed in section 602.7, and parental alienation is not included among them. The trial court was not required or mandated to consider any alleged parental alienation.” In re Marriage of Nelson, IL App (5th) 250001-U, ¶93 (2025).

2. In re Marriage of Yazeji and Assaf, 2022 IL App (3d) 190197-U

In Yazeji, scientific experts called to testify at trial explained the symptoms they commonly encountered in children who had been alienated from a parent:

• Denigration of one parent
• Lack of ambivalence toward either parent
• Borrowed scenarios from one parent
• Enmeshment between the children and the favored parent

In this case, Dad accused Mom of parental alienation, and Mom brought credible accusations against Dad of physical abuse toward the children. Even though Dad brought in multiple scientific experts to testify to the presence of parental alienation in this case, the Court could not conclusively find that alienation existed. The Appellate Court upheld the trial court’s findings because the accusations physical abuse by Dad were credible, and when abuse exists, it is impossible to discount said abuse as the source of the children’s aversion to that parent.

3. In re Marriage of Keigher, 2023 IL App (1st) 221103-U

In Keigher, Father appealed the trial court’s ruling restricting his parenting time. The trial court found that Father engaged in various forms of coercive control and abuse of his wife throughout their marriage, and that it now manifested in his parental alienation of his older children against Mother. The appellate court affirmed, finding that the trial court had sufficient evidence that Father’s efforts to alienate his children from Mother endangered the children’s well-being.

This case demonstrates the Court’s sometimes willingness to acknowledge alienation is occurring. The Court is always ready to impose serious restrictions when parental behavior harms the children, but it is not always willing to slap on the “alienation” label. In this case, multiple experts provided testimony confirming that Father was alienating the children from Mother, and that his conduct was harming the children.

Contact an Experienced Child Custody Lawyer in Chicago

So, is parental alienation a “thing” in Illinois divorce court? No, not really. That said, the Court absolutely considers the kind of behaviors people dub as “alienation” when allocating parental responsibilities and parenting time. If you think parental alienation will play a part in your divorce proceedings, an experienced family law attorney can help you understand what you can expect from litigation. The attorneys of O. Long Law, LLC, are skilled at handling complex cases involving high-conflict spouses and the allocation of parental responsibilities. Contact us today to schedule your initial consultation.