Family structures and restructures in Romanian society. Parental alienation syndrome Raluca Silvia Matei, Ph.D. Ovidius University Constanța, The Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences ralum74@yahoo.com Rodica Gabriela Enache, Ph.D. Ovidius University Constanța, The Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences rodicaenache3@gmail.com Abstract. In this paper we describe some problems of the Romanian families in contemporary society: marital satisfaction, psychological and social implications of divorce and parental conflicts and the parental alienation syndrome. Keywords. divorce and parental conflicts, parental alienation syndrome Introduction 1. Metamorphosis of the family in contemporary society, implications on marital and parental satisfaction The family imposed itself as a central theme of social thinking of the nineteenth century. The choice of the partner, the morphological transformations of the family, the marital relations and the types of family functioning were the subject of the first studies of the 1960s, 1970s. Based on the study of the interactions within the family, different types of couples and family functioning were highlighted, following the degree of differentiation of the roles according to sex, the group's privilege of the fusion or autonomy, the opening or not of the group to the outside world. In the '80s and the '90s, other terms appeared: male-female relationships in the family, domestic roles and habits, family socialization and educational strategies, consequences of the separation and of the returns in the couple, transmissions (heritage, memory) and intergenerational relationships, parenting support, housing and residential trajectories, family political regulation. Due to the progress made by family sociology, there is now a better understanding of family functions (between cohabiting and non-cohabiting parents), power relations and domestic routines, family trajectories, couple formation, marital roles and gender differences, family relationships with other institutions (school, social services, the labour market or housing), the mediating role of the parental network, the relationships and transmissions between generations, the way of articulation between the family and the provident state. 97 Technium Social Sciences Journal Vol. 5, 97-103, March 2020 ISSN: 2668-7798 www.techniumscience.com