Family estrangement is spreading in the United States, with adult children cutting off contact with their parents. A social climate that puts individual mental health first, along with the influence of social media, is cited as the main backdrop.
Adult children who have cut ties with their parents are sharing their experiences on social media, and a trend is emerging in which severing a relationship is accepted as a choice made to protect one's mental health, The Wall Street Journal reported on the 15th.
Experts point to a shift in how family relationships are viewed as the key cause. In the past, there was a strong belief that relationships should be maintained even when problems existed within a family, but recently a clearer tendency has emerged to weigh the quality of a relationship, including mutual respect and emotional stability.
The standard for judging a parent's behavior as harmful has also changed. In a survey of about 1,000 parents who are estranged from their children, 82% of respondents pointed to the increased use of terms such as "toxic," "abusive" and "unsafe" as a cause of the estrangement. In some cases, everyday conflict or repeated criticism is taken as emotional harm, according to the findings.
Social media is also growing more influential. More than 138,000 new videos describing cutting off parents or minimizing contact with them were posted on TikTok last month, according to market research firm Infegy. That is more than 10 times the number in August 2020.
Changes in how psychotherapy is practiced are cited as another cause. Some experts say that amid an emphasis on mental health and trauma, there are more cases of therapists recommending that patients cut off a relationship rather than helping mediate conflict within the family.
Those who support estrangement argue that leaving a harmful relationship can be necessary to protect an adult child's mental health. Others note, however, that it is difficult to confirm clearly how much family estrangement has actually increased.