Marital conflict and support seeking by parents in adolescence: Empirical support for the parentification construct
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Parentification, a parent-child dynamic wherein children come to provide ongoing emotional support for their parents, has been documented extensively in the clinical literature; however, it rarely has been studied systematically. Using a community sample of 83 couples and their adolescent children (mean age = 15.26 years; 52% male, 48% female), the authors linked adolescent self-report of parentification to specific youth and adult behaviors using multiple methods and examined its associations with youth adjustment problems. The parentification measure demonstrated strong internal consistency and 1-year stability. Parentification was associated with marital conflict, youth perceptions of threat, low warmth in the parent-child relationship, and the tendency for youths to intervene in marital conflict. Links were also found with youth reports of internalizing and externalizing behavior and poorer competency in close friendships. These findings thus support the parentification construct and provide evidence that parentification may contribute to poor youth outcomes by burdening children with developmentally inappropriate responsibilities.
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Among studies on internalizing problems (n = 11) and psychological/emotional distress (n = 8), only two differentiated instrumental from emotional parentification, two exclusively focused on emotional parentification, and two focused on role-based parentification.
“Among the studies on internalizing problems (n = 11; measured either by forming a latent variable or summing across anxiety and depressive symptoms) and studies on psychological/emotional distress (n = 8), only two studies differentiated instrumental from emotional parentification [17,51], two studies exclusively focused on emotional parentification [86,88], and two other studies focused on role-”
From Parentification Vulnerability, Reactivity, Resilience, and Thriving: A Mixed Methods Systematic Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [86]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredYouths' perceptions about their experience of parentification and the degree to which emotional and resource supports are provided influence the trajectories they traverse-resilience and thriving or surviving and succumbing.
“Youths’ perceptions about their experience of parentification (e.g., fair, positive, unfair, loss) and the degree to which emotional and resource supports are provided (e.g., appreciation, food, housing) influence the trajectories they traverse—resilience and thriving or surviving and succumbing [36,86].”
From Parentification Vulnerability, Reactivity, Resilience, and Thriving: A Mixed Methods Systematic Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [86]
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports that youths who rated their mothers higher in parentification perceived less warmth and support, and it links parentification modestly to adjustment problems. It does not establish that perceptions of fairness or provision of resources such as food and housing determine trajectories toward thriving or succumbing; the authors also caution that their largely cross-sectional analyses cannot establish causality. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredA lack of parental emotional support in childhood may take the form of parents dismissing or underplaying the children's parentification experience, and providing less warmth and support, assuming children should and will take on parenting responsibilities, which could dismantle children's trust in parents and other adults to care about them.
“A lack of parental emotional support in childhood may take the form of parents dismissing or underplaying the children’s parentification experience, and providing less warmth and support [86], assuming children should and will take on parenting responsibilities, which could dismantle children’s trust in parents and other adults to care about them.”
From Parentification Vulnerability, Reactivity, Resilience, and Thriving: A Mixed Methods Systematic Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [86]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredOnly one study examined emotional versus instrumental parentification and only one examined maternal emotional parentification, both of which found that more emotional parentification was associated with more externalizing problems.
“Only one study examined emotional versus instrumental parentification [70] and only one examined maternal emotional parentification [86], both of which found that more emotional parentification was associated with more externalizing problems.”
From Parentification Vulnerability, Reactivity, Resilience, and Thriving: A Mixed Methods Systematic Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [86]
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References 58 · Cited by 179
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Cummings EM Davies PT 1994 The impact of parents on their children: An emotional security perspective Annals of Child Development 10 167 208
- Margolies PJ Weintraub S 1977 The revised 56-item CRPBI as a research instrument: Reliability and factor structure Journal of Clinical Psychology 33 472 476
- Authors
- Peris, T. S., Goeke-Morey, M. C., Cummings, E. M., & Emery, R. E.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- University of Notre Dame (US)
- University of Virginia (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Family Psychology
- Published
- 2008-08
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 633-642
- ISSN
- 0893-3200 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1293
- PMC
- PMC2965613
- OpenAlex
- W2068094353
- Cited by
- 179
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 7.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Family Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD 36261, 1R01HD056354-01)
- National Institute of Mental Health (T32 MH073517:01A1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- parentification, marital conflict, parent-child relationship, threat perception, internalizing problems, externalizing problems, youth adjustment, construct validity, longitudinal stability
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Conflict, Psychological, Family, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Marriage, Parent-Child Relations, Social Support, Parenting
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