A parental report on the long-term consequences for children of abduction by the other parent.

Little is known about the long-term impact on the child of abduction by a parent. Children who had been kidnapped by one of their parents and hidden for an average of 2.7 years have been followed for a decade through contact with the parent who recovered them. This study reports on the most recent series of interviews. It was hypothesized that children who were now late teens and young adults would, on the whole, be progressing satisfactorily into young adulthood and that relationships with their parents would be non-problematic. According to 32 parental reports gleaned both from a telephone interview with open-ended and closed-ended questions and from a brief mailed questionnaire with closed-ended questions, a significant minority of the children continue to suffer emotionally and may be having more physical ailments than their peers. Relations with recovering parents were non-problematic.