Refuting the 5 Factor Model: Best Practice Requires a Systemic Approach to PCCP (Parent-Child Contact Problems)

Today’s family courts commonly face the dilemma of the polarized child, the son or daughter who aligns with parent A and resists or refuses contact with Parent B. This advanced training eschews binary either-or approaches to these parent-child contact problems (PCCP). In particular, the “Five Factor Model” (FFM; Bernet and Greenhill, 2022) is dissected and found to be biased and illogical. The FFM promotes an artificial alienation versus estrangement, good guy versus bad guy approach that exacerbates family conflict. For all of its recipe-like appeal, the FFM is rejected in favor of a systemically-informed or ecological model of PCCP. A rubric is proposed with which evaluators, Guardians ad litem, work product reviewers, and finders-of-fact can minimize bias, avoid premature closure, and organize the complexity of conflicted family system dynamics in the best interests of the child.