Aleksandra Publicewicz
Developmental Psychology, Volume 25 Issue 1, 2020, pp. 85-99
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843879PR.20.005.12002The main problem of this study is the assessment of the relationship between the level of parentification experienced during adolescence and the intensity of identity-related senses in young adulthood. We took into account three main types of parentification: emotional, instrumental, and perceived unfairness of the role reversal experience and the identity-related senses described by Pilarska (2012, 2016). 181 people aged 19–30 participated in the study, including 95 women. The participants completed the following measures: Filial Responsibility Scale-Adult (past form) (Jurkovic, Thirkield, 1999), the Multidimensional Questionnaire of Identity (Pilarska, 2015), and a demographic survey whose main purpose was to indicate possible risk factors running in the participants’families, such as, disability of family members, chronic somatic or mental illness, addiction, chronic absence, divorce or death of a parent. Results confirmed a higher level of parentification in the risk factor group in comparison with the control group, and the lack of such differences with regard to identity-related senses. The lower level of the sense of one’s own boundaries characterized the group with the higher intensity of emotional and instrumental parentification. The lower level of the three identity-related senses (of one’s own boundaries, of having inner contents, and of self-worth) was noticeable in the group with a higher score on each parentification dimension. The latter result indicates clear negative effects of parentification associated with its perceived unfairness.