Child sexual abuse, early family risk, and childhood parentification: Pathways to current psychosocial adjustment
Abstract
In this study, the authors examined the role of parentification (children assuming adult-like roles in the family) as it relates to family risk (parental psychopathology, parental illness, and domestic violence), child sexual abuse (CSA), and psychosocial adjustment in 499 college women. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model of direct, indirect, and mediational pathways through which CSA, family risk, and parentification contributed to later psychosocial maladjustment. Results indicate that CSA and family risk independently and directly predicted higher levels of maladjustment, but only family risk positively predicted parentification in childhood. Parentification was unexpectedly related to less maladjustment. Parentification failed to mediate the relation between early family risk and maladjustment. Findings suggest that family risk factors may contribute to parentification and that parentification is not always related to poorer psychosocial outcomes. Future research should examine the impact of parentification on other aspects of functioning and should assess how individual, familial, and cultural variables (e.g., age, gender, duration, perceived fairness, ethnicity, and family support) moderate the impact of parentification on long-term adjustment.
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Seven studies examined parentification as a mediator for associations between other family environments and health/behavior outcomes.
“Seven studies examined parentification as a mediator for other associations, typically associations between other family environments and health/behavior outcomes [39,48,58,59,60,64,88].”
From Parentification Vulnerability, Reactivity, Resilience, and Thriving: A Mixed Methods Systematic Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [58]
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- Authors
- Fitzgerald, M. M., Schneider, R. A., Salstrom, S., Zinzow, H. M., Jackson, J., & Fossel, R. V.
- Affiliations
- Medical University of South Carolina (US)
- VA Palo Alto Health Care System (US)
- Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (US)
- University of Georgia (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Family Psychology
- Published
- 2008-04
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 320-324
- ISSN
- 0893-3200 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1293
- OpenAlex
- W2076782375
- Cited by
- 75
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 5.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Family Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Child Welfare and Adoption
- Keywords
- child sexual abuse, parentification, familial risk, psychosocial adjustment, parental psychopathology, parental illness, domestic violence, female university students, mediation, maladjustment
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Child Abuse, Sexual, Family, Female, Humans, Parent-Child Relations, Parents, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Factors, Self Concept, Severity of Illness Index, Social Adjustment, Students, Child of Impaired Parents
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