How Common Is Parent–Child Estrangement? Germany's Population Evidence — Arránz Becker & Hank (2022)
A plain-language summary of the authors' 2022 research in Journal of Marriage and Family — Adult children's estrangement from parents in Germany.
Summarised by Malcolm Smith on behalf of Love Over Exile. Last updated 7 June 2026 . Reviewed against the published primary source (DOI 10.1111/jomf.12796 ) .
TL;DR
- Headline · a population measure of estrangement, not alienation. Arránz Becker and Hank used ten waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam; n=10,228) to measure how often adult children become estranged from a parent. This is a study of estrangement and contact loss in the general population — it measures how common the outcome is, not whether anyone was manipulated into it. It is not a parental-alienation study, and it should never be cited as one.
- Key finding · fathers lost roughly twice as often. Substantially more children experienced periods of estrangement from fathers (20%, or 12% of all person-years observed) than from mothers (9%, or 5% of person-years). Father estrangement ran at roughly double mother estrangement — a gendered asymmetry that recurs across countries.
- What estrangement meant here · noncontact or emotional distance. The authors defined estrangement as 'noncontact or emotional distance' between an adult child and a noncoresident biological parent. It is a broader, gentler measure than total cut-off — it captures both no contact at all and relationships that have gone cold while technically continuing.
- What drove it · separation and stepfamily structure. Estrangement was strongly tied to parental separation and non-coresidence, and to stepfamily dynamics. When a parent — most often the father — no longer lived with the child after a separation, the risk of later estrangement rose. The study models structure and gender; it does not measure intent or manipulation.
- Why it matters here · the European piece of the evidence base. Read alongside US and UK findings, this study supplies the European population-level evidence that parent–child estrangement is common, and that fathers lose contact far more often than mothers. That broader contact-loss picture is the backdrop against which the narrower, alienation-specific research should be understood.
The Study at a Glance
| Authors | Arránz Becker, O., & Hank, K. |
|---|---|
| Published | 2022 |
| Journal | Journal of Marriage and Family , 84(1) , pp. 347–360 |
| Method | Population-level longitudinal analysis using ten waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam), a large nationally representative panel survey, with a sample of 10,228 respondents. Estrangement was defined as 'noncontact or emotional distance' between an adult child and a noncoresident biological parent. The authors used two-level random-intercept logistic panel regressions to model estrangement from noncoresident mothers and fathers across young and middle adulthood, with gender and family structure (parental relationship status, step-relationships) as the main predictors. This is a measure of estrangement and contact loss in the general population — it does not measure parental alienation, manipulation, or cause. |
| Sample | n = 10,228 (German Family Panel, pairfam; ten waves of longitudinal data) |
| DOI | 10.1111/jomf.12796 (open) |
| Full paper | View primary source → |
Love Over Exile is a plain-language research archive on parental alienation, written by Malcolm Smith — an alienated parent and author of the forthcoming book Love Over Exile — for non-specialist readers who want to understand the evidence base without a psychology degree or a journal subscription. This page is one entry in that archive.
How common is it for an adult child and a parent to end up estranged? It is one of the most basic questions in this field, and one of the hardest to answer well — because it requires large, representative data tracked over many years. This German study is one of the best attempts to answer it, and it carries an important caution built into its design.
Definition · Estrangement — and how it differs from alienation
Estrangement is the outcome: an adult child and a parent are no longer in contact, or have become emotionally distant. In this study it is defined as "noncontact or emotional distance" from a noncoresident biological parent. Parental alienation is one specific cause of estrangement, in which a child is turned against a parent through another person's manipulation or pressure, without legitimate justification. This paper measures the outcome across a whole population — it does not measure the cause, and it is not a parental-alienation study.
From Arránz Becker & Hank (2022), Journal of Marriage and Family 84(1), 347–360.
What did Arránz Becker and Hank actually study?
The study asks a population-level question: across a whole society, how often do adult children become estranged from a parent, and what is linked to it? To answer it, the authors used the German Family Panel — known as pairfam — a large, nationally representative survey that follows the same people year after year.
They drew on ten waves of that data, with a sample of 10,228 respondents. Because pairfam re-interviews the same individuals over time, it can capture estrangement as it appears, eases, or hardens across years — something a one-off snapshot survey cannot do.
The statistical method was a set of two-level random-intercept logistic panel regressions — a standard technique for modelling a yes/no outcome (estranged or not) measured repeatedly on the same people. The focus was on estrangement from noncoresident biological mothers and fathers in young and middle adulthood, with gender and family structure as the main predictors.
One framing point governs everything below, and it is the reason this article exists in a parental-alienation archive with a caution attached. This is a study of estrangement, not alienation. It measures how common the outcome of contact loss is; it does not measure why any particular relationship ended, and it contains no measure of manipulation or alienating behaviour.
The headline finding: fathers lost roughly twice as often
The central result is stated plainly in the paper's own abstract:
"Substantially more children experienced periods of estrangement from fathers (20%; corresponding to 12% of person-years of observation) than from mothers (9%; corresponding to 5% of person-years of observation)."
There are two numbers for each parent because there are two honest ways to count. The first pair — 20% and 9% — is the share of children who experienced any period of estrangement at some point in the observation. The second pair — 12% and 5% of person-years — is the share of all the observed time that was spent estranged.
Figure 1 · In Germany, estrangement from fathers ran at roughly double that from mothers. On the "ever estranged" measure, 20% of adult children experienced a period of estrangement from their father versus 9% from their mother. On the "share of person-years" measure, fathers accounted for 12% of estranged time versus 5% for mothers.
The gap between the two measures is itself informative: because the person-years figures (12% and 5%) are much lower than the ever-estranged figures (20% and 9%), estrangement appears to be a phase for many adult children rather than a permanent rupture — relationships move in and out of contact and closeness over the years observed.
The second measure is lower because estrangement is often a phase, not a permanent state. A one-in-five lifetime exposure to father estrangement does not mean one in five fathers are permanently cut off — many of those relationships move back into contact later, an echo of the reconciliation pattern found in US longitudinal research.
What "estrangement" meant here — and why the definition matters
A single design choice shapes the entire study. The authors did not restrict estrangement to total no-contact. They defined it as "noncontact or emotional distance" from a noncoresident biological parent.
That captures two different situations under one heading. The first is noncontact — no contact at all. The second is emotional distance — a relationship that technically continues, with occasional contact, but has gone cold or distant.
This broader definition is more inclusive than a strict total-cut-off measure, and it is one reason these figures are higher than studies that count only complete ruptures. It also means the numbers describe a wide spectrum of distance, from a relationship that has merely cooled to one that has ended entirely — not a single, severe condition. Keeping that in mind is essential to citing the study fairly.
What drove estrangement: family structure, not measured intent
The predictors that mattered were gender and family structure. Estrangement was strongly associated with parental separation, with a parent no longer living with the child, and with stepfamily dynamics.
This structural pathway helps explain the gender gap. Because fathers are far more likely than mothers to become the non-coresident parent after a separation, they are more exposed to the very circumstances the study links to later estrangement. In other words, much of the father–mother difference may be about who moved out and how the family was reconfigured — not about any measured difference in parenting.
Figure 2 · The structural pathway Arránz Becker and Hank model. Parental separation leads to non-coresidence — most often of the father — and to stepfamily formation; both are associated with a higher chance of later estrangement. Because fathers are more often the parent who moves out, the structural route helps account for the father–mother gap.
The caution is built into the figure deliberately. The study models structure and outcome, not cause: it does not measure parenting quality, manipulation, or intent. An association with separation is a population pattern, not evidence of alienation in any individual family.
It bears repeating because it is so easily lost: an association with separation is a population pattern, not a verdict on any individual family. The study models structure; it cannot see intent.
How Germany compares with the US and the UK
This is where the study earns its place in a parental-alienation archive. It supplies the European population-level piece of an emerging cross-national picture — and the same gendered pattern keeps appearing, even though each study measures something slightly different.
The table below sets the three side by side. Read it with care: these studies do not measure the same construct, so the figures are not strictly comparable. The cross-national pattern is our synthesis across them, not a claim made in any single paper.
| Study | Country | What it measures | Headline figures | Father vs mother | |---|---|---|---|---| | Arránz Becker & Hank (2022) | Germany | Estrangement (noncontact or emotional distance) | 20% fathers / 9% mothers (ever) | Fathers ~2× mothers | | Reczek, Stacey & Thomeer (2023) | United States | Estrangement + later reunification | ~26% fathers / ~6% mothers; most later reunite | Fathers far higher | | Hine et al. (2025) | United Kingdom | Parental alienating behaviours (PA-specific) | Population prevalence of alienating behaviours | — |
The honest cross-national reading is this: parent–child contact loss is common across Western societies, and fathers lose contact substantially more often than mothers. That broad estrangement backdrop is the context within which the narrower, alienation-specific evidence — like the UK prevalence work — should be understood. Estrangement is the wide outer circle; alienation is one specific cause sitting inside it.
Where the line between estrangement and alienation falls
Because this study is so easy to misuse, it is worth being explicit about the boundary. Many estrangements are not alienation at all. An adult child may withdraw from a parent because of abuse, neglect, sustained conflict, or simply a relationship that drifted after a separation — all of which are captured by a "noncontact or emotional distance" measure.
Parental alienation is the subset of estrangement cases in which the child's rejection was manufactured — driven by another person's manipulation or pressure rather than by the rejected parent's own conduct. This paper cannot tell those situations apart, because it never set out to. For the difference between the two — and how to tell which one you may be facing — see our explainer on parental alienation versus estrangement.
What are the honest limitations?
Three limitations should travel with every citation. First, the study measures estrangement, not its causes — it cannot tell you why any relationship ended, and it contains no measure of alienation or manipulation.
Second, it is the adult child's perspective on noncoresident parents — it does not capture the parent's account, and it does not cover relationships in which the parent still lived with the child.
Third, it is a prevalence study with a broad definition. The "noncontact or emotional distance" measure spans everything from a cooled relationship to a total cut-off, so the figures describe a wide spectrum of distance rather than a single severe condition. Read within those limits, it is exactly what it claims to be: a careful, large-scale map of how common parent–child estrangement is in one European country.
Why this matters — for parents and the field
For an alienated parent, this study offers a particular kind of cold comfort and useful clarity. The cold comfort is the scale: losing contact with an adult child is not a rare, shameful anomaly — across an entire country, one in five children experienced estrangement from a father. You are part of a far larger pattern than the isolation of it can make you feel.
The clarity is the boundary. This study proves estrangement is common; it does not, and cannot, prove that any given case was alienation. That honesty is what keeps the broader field credible — and it is why the strongest argument for an alienated parent is never a population statistic, but the documented behaviour and impact in their own family, set against the wider evidence that contact loss, and father estrangement in particular, is widespread.
Primary Sources Cited
- Arránz Becker, O., & Hank, K. (2022) — Adult children's estrangement from parents in Germany. Journal of Marriage and Family 84(1), 347–360. DOI 10.1111/jomf.12796.
- Reczek, R., Stacey, L., & Thomeer, M. B. (2023) — Parent–Adult Child Estrangement in the United States by Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Sexuality. Journal of Marriage and Family 85(2), 494–517. DOI 10.1111/jomf.12898.
- Hine, B. A., Harman, J. J., Leder-Elder, S., & Bates, E. A. (2025) — Examining the prevalence and impact of parental alienating behaviors (PABs) in separated parents in the United Kingdom. Journal of Family Violence. DOI 10.1007/s10896-025-00910-4.
- Harman, J. J., Kruk, E., & Hines, D. A. (2018) — Parental Alienating Behaviors: An Unacknowledged Form of Family Violence. Psychological Bulletin 144(12), 1275–1299. DOI 10.1037/bul0000175.
Last reviewed and updated on 7 June 2026 by Malcolm Smith.
Frequently asked questions
What did Arránz Becker and Hank (2022) study?
They measured how common parent–child estrangement is among adult children in Germany. Using ten waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam), with a sample of 10,228 people, they tracked how often adult children became estranged from a noncoresident biological mother or father — defining estrangement as 'noncontact or emotional distance.' The study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, is a population-level measure of estrangement and contact loss. It is not a study of parental alienation and does not measure manipulation or cause.
How common is estrangement from parents according to this study?
Among adult children in the German sample, 20% experienced a period of estrangement from their father at some point, and 9% from their mother. Counted as a share of all observed time rather than people, that was 12% of person-years for fathers and 5% for mothers. So estrangement from fathers ran at roughly double the rate of estrangement from mothers — and for many children it was an episode rather than a permanent state.
Why are children estranged from fathers more often than mothers?
The study links the gap mainly to family structure. Estrangement was strongly associated with parental separation, with a parent no longer living with the child, and with stepfamily dynamics. Because fathers are far more often the parent who moves out after a separation, they are more exposed to the structural pathway that leads to later estrangement. Importantly, the study models structure and gender — it does not measure parenting quality, manipulation, or intent, so it cannot say the gap is caused by anything fathers did or did not do.
Is this the same thing as parental alienation?
No — and this is the most important distinction to keep. Estrangement is the outcome: an adult child and a parent are no longer in contact or have become emotionally distant. Parental alienation is one specific cause of that outcome, in which a child is turned against a parent through another person's manipulation or pressure without legitimate justification. This study measures estrangement in the general population; it does not measure why any individual relationship ended, and it contains no measure of alienation. Citing it as evidence of how common parental alienation is would misrepresent it.
What does 'noncontact or emotional distance' mean?
It is how the authors defined estrangement. Rather than counting only relationships where contact had stopped completely, they included two situations: 'noncontact' — no contact at all with a noncoresident biological parent — and 'emotional distance' — a relationship that technically continues but has become cold or distant. This is a broader, more inclusive measure than a strict total-cut-off definition, which is part of why the figures are higher than studies that count only complete ruptures.
How does Germany compare with the US and the UK?
The same gendered pattern shows up across all three, even though the studies measure somewhat different things. In the US, Reczek and colleagues (2023) found adult children far more likely to be estranged from fathers than mothers, with most estrangements later followed by renewed contact. In the UK, Hine and colleagues (2025) measured parental-alienating behaviours specifically. Germany sits between them as a broad population measure of estrangement. The cross-national takeaway — our synthesis, not a claim in any single paper — is that contact loss is common across Western countries and that fathers lose contact more often than mothers.
What are the limitations of this study?
Three matter most. First, it measures estrangement, not its causes — it cannot tell you why any relationship ended or whether manipulation was involved. Second, it is the adult child's perspective on noncoresident parents, so it does not capture the parent's account or relationships where the parent still lived with the child. Third, it is a prevalence study, not a clinical one — the broad 'noncontact or emotional distance' definition means these figures describe a wide spectrum of distance, from a cooled relationship to total cut-off, not a single severe condition.
Who are Oliver Arránz Becker and Karsten Hank?
Both are German sociologists specialising in family research. Oliver Arránz Becker holds the Chair of Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Karsten Hank is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cologne and a principal investigator on the pairfam panel that supplied the data, as well as a fellow at DIW Berlin. Their expertise is in large-scale quantitative analysis of family relationships and the life course — the methodological backbone of a study like this one.
References
- Arránz Becker, O., & Hank, K. (2022). Adult children's estrangement from parents in Germany . Journal of Marriage and Family , 84(1) , 347–360. 10.1111/jomf.12796 · Primary study summarised on this page.
- Reczek, R., Stacey, L., & Thomeer, M. B. (2023). Parent–Adult Child Estrangement in the United States by Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Sexuality . Journal of Marriage and Family 85(2), 494–517. Source
- Hine, B. A., Harman, J. J., Leder-Elder, S., & Bates, E. A. (2025). Examining the prevalence and impact of parental alienating behaviors (PABs) in separated parents in the United Kingdom . Journal of Family Violence. Source
- Harman, J. J., Kruk, E., & Hines, D. A. (2018). Parental Alienating Behaviors: An Unacknowledged Form of Family Violence . Psychological Bulletin 144(12), 1275–1299. Source
See the full curated bibliography on the research page.
How to cite this summary
APA 7th edition
Smith, M. (2026). How Common Is Parent–Child Estrangement? Germany's Population Evidence — Arránz Becker & Hank (2022) [Summary of Arránz Becker, O., & Hank, K. (2022)]. Love Over Exile. https://loveoverexile.com/parental-alienation-research/arranz-becker-hank-2022-german-estrangement/
When citing the underlying research, please cite the primary study (entry 1 above) directly.
About the researchers
Adult children's estrangement from parents in Germany (2022) was authored by 2 researchers:
-
Oliver Arránz Becker, Prof. Dr. · Lead author
Chair of Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences, Institute for Sociology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Oliver Arránz Becker is Professor and Chair of Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences at the Institute for Sociology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. His research applies large-scale quantitative and longitudinal methods to family relationships, partnership and the life course, including intergenerational ties and relationship dissolution. He is a long-standing contributor to the German Family Panel (pairfam) research community.
-
Karsten Hank, Prof. Dr. · Co-author
Professor of Sociology, University of Cologne; principal investigator, German Family Panel (pairfam); fellow, DIW Berlin
Karsten Hank is Professor of Sociology (Social Structure Analysis) at the University of Cologne and one of the principal investigators on the German Family Panel (pairfam), the longitudinal survey that supplied this study's data. He is also a research fellow at DIW Berlin. His work spans intergenerational relationships, ageing, family demography and the life course, and he is among the most widely cited German family sociologists of his generation.
