Supervisors info:
Τσάκωνα Βασιλική, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, Τ.Ε.Α.Π.Η., Σχολή Επιστημών της Αγωγής, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Summary:
In spring of 2021, the Greek parliament voted law 4800/2021 “regarding the Reforms about parents’ and children’s relationships and other issues of family law and other urgent provisions”. The society was particularly concerned with the relevant bill, which was set in public consultation, and an intense and various in opinions public debate was brought out. As we wanted to research the existing perceptions in society concerning the parenthood, and especially the concept of domestic violence and subjects who get involved in abusive partnerships and parental relationships, we focused on bill article 14, which was regulating the consequences of poor custody practice. As we aimed to highlight the corresponding parental identities, we researched the posted comments in public consultation regarding article 14.
Bibliography is based on distinct scientific Words, as the modern western philosophical tradition, critical and feminist theory, studies mainly in the field of sociology and (child)psychiatry and also on (inter)national law. This choice serves the purposes of this study and our aim is a wider report of theories and incidents starting from the 18th century until today and a depiction of the subject of gendered parental identities and domestic violence to take place and an in-depth research of the fundamentals on which the notions and the identities are constructed. The above was deemed necessary as, in our opinion, the subject of the study cannot be observed and understood outside the historical, social and institutional contexts in which it has been produced. The central research questions which are set in the study aim to highlight the parental identities, the relativity which is developed in between and the notions which emerge in the comments regarding poor custody practice. The research methodology follows the rules of qualitative research and we analyzed data/items coming from a secondary source. Having chosen the interpretative approach, the analysis is based on social construction theory.
It was observed that the identities which are constructed may be distinguished in main categories having as criterion the main identity which dominates in comments. These main categories are 1) the alienator parents, 2) the lying parents, 3) the (in)effective parents, 4) the parents – “victims” of false complaints, 5) the autonomous, the protectors, 6) the abusive parents, 7) the alienated parents, 8) the manipulator – vengeful, “possessive” e.t.c. parents, 9) the “mentally ill” parents and 10) the sovereign parents and parental resistance identities which are constructed relative to the hegemonic ones. In addition, there are findings in the research concerning the rhetoric which is constructed in comments. As more significant findings are concerned the creation of a discourse in comments and the simultaneous construction of social groups corresponding to the exposure opinions on the base of distinguished criteria of conclusion and exclusion. Finally, the “Parental Alienation Syndrome ” seems to possess the main semantic centre in the discussion and the support or decomposition of it to become the central litigation in subjects’ discourse.
Keywords:
parental gendered identities, domestic violence, child abuse, poor custody practice, “Parental Alienation Syndrome”, patriarchy, feminism, law, social construction
