Parentification

Parentification is the process of role reversal whereby a child is obliged to act as parent to their own parent. In extreme cases, the child is used to fill the void of the alienating parent's emotional life.^[1]

Two distinct modes of parentification have been identified technically: instrumental parentification and emotional parentification. Instrumental parentification involves the child completing physical tasks for the family, such as looking after a sick relative, paying bills, or providing assistance to younger siblings that would normally be provided by a parent. Emotional parentification occurs when a child or adolescent must take on the role of a confidant or mediator for (or between) parents and/or family members.^[2]

Prehistory

Melitta Schmideberg noted in 1948 how emotional deprivation could lead parents to treat their children (unconsciously) as substitute parent figures.^[3] "Spousification" and "parental child" (Minuchin) offered alternative concepts exploring the same phenomenon; while the theme of intergenerational continuity in such violations of personal boundaries was further examined.^[4] Eric Berne touched on the dangers of parents and children having a symmetrical, rather than asymmetrical relationship, as when an absent spouse is replaced by the eldest child;^[5] and Virginia Satir wrote of "the role-function discrepancy...where the son gets into a head-of-the-family role, commonly that of the father".^[6]

Object relations theory highlighted how the child's False Self is called into being when it is forced prematurely to take excessive care of the parental object;^[7] and John Bowlby looked at what he called "compulsive caregiving" among the anxiously attached, as a result of a parent inverting the normal relationship and pressuring the child to be an attachment figure for them.^[8]

All such aspects of disturbed and inverted parenting patterns have been drawn under the umbrella of the wider phenomenon of parentification - with the result (critics suggest) that on occasion "ironically the concept of parentification has...been as over-burdened as the child it often describes".^[9]

Choice of child

For practical reasons, elder children are generally chosen for the familial "parental" role - very often the first-born children who were put in the anomalous role.^[10] However, gender considerations mean that sometimes the eldest boy or eldest girl was selected, even if they are not the oldest child overall, for such reasons as the preference to match the sex of the missing parent.

Thus where there is a disabled child in the family to be cared for, "older siblings, especially girls, are at the greatest risk of parentification";^[11] where a father-figure is missing, it may be the eldest son who is forced to take on his father's responsibilities, without ever obtaining the autonomy that normally accompanies such adult roles.^[12]

Alternatively a widower may put a daughter into the social and emotional role of his dead wife - "spousification"; or a mother can oblige her daughter to play the caring role, in a betrayal of the child's normal expectation of love and care.^[13]

Narcissistic

Narcissistic parentification occurs when a child is forced to take on the parent's idealised projection, something which encourages a compulsive perfectionism in the child at the expense of their natural development.^[14] In a kind of pseudo-identification, the child is induced by any and all means to take on the characteristics of the parental ego ideal^[15] – a pattern that has been detected in western culture since Homer's description of the character of Achilles.^[16]

Disadvantages/advantages

The almost inevitable byproduct of parentification is losing one's own childhood.^[17] In destructive parentification, the child in question takes on excessive responsibility in the family, without their caretaking being acknowledged and supported by others:^[18] by adopting the role of parental care-giver, the child loses their real place in the family unit and is left lonely and unsure.^[19] In extreme instances, there may be what has been called a kind of disembodiment, a narcissistic wound that threatens one's basic self-identity.^[20]

In later life, parentified children may be left struggling with unacknowledged anger and resentment, may have difficulty trusting their peers, and may end up struggling to form and maintain romantic relationships.^[21]

However, not all results of parentification may be negative. Some studies have hypothesized that when a child is the subject of parentification, it might sometimes result in them, later in life, having greater psychological resilience, more individuation, a clearer sense of self, and more secure attachment styles during adulthood. These characteristics may be because the person had to adapt to changes and take on responsibilities.^[22] Crosscultural studies also point to the widespread nature of the practice of parentification, and indicate that normal as well as pathological aspects of parentification need to be taken into account.^[23]

Case studies

• Carl Jung in his late autobiography reports that his mother always spoke to him as an adult, confiding in him what she could not share with her husband.^[24] Laurens van der Post commented on the grown-up atmosphere surrounding the young Jung, and considered that "this activation of the pattern of the "old man" within himself...was all a consequence of the extent to which his father and mother failed each other".^[25]
• Patrick Casement reports on a patient - Mr T – whose mother was distressed at any and all his feelings, and who therefore protected her from them – mothering her himself.^[26]

Literary examples

In The Tale of Genji, we are told that for "Kaoru's mother...her son's visits were her chief pleasure. Sometimes he almost seemed more like a father than a son - a fact which he was aware of and thought rather sad".^[27]

Charles Dickens' "Angel in the house" characters, particularly Agnes Wickfield in David Copperfield, are in fact parentified children.^[28] Agnes is forced to be the parent of her alcoholic father and seems to strive for perfection as a means of reaching the "ego ideal" of her deceased mother (who died upon child-birth). Agnes marries late, has relationship and intimacy problems (she has a hard time expressing her love for David until he reveals his own love for her), and has some self-defeating attitudes; in one scene she blames her own father's misfortunes on herself. However, she proves to be resilient, resourceful, responsible and even potentially career-driven (she forms her own school). She also manages to marry the protagonist David and the two live happily together for 10 years with children by the end of the novel.

The theme of parentification has also been explored in the Twilight series,^[29] with particular (but not exclusive) reference to the character of Bella Swan.^[30]

Another example of parentification in modern media is the relationship between John and Dean Winchester in the widely popular CW television series, Supernatural. Often Dean finds himself taking care of his younger brother Sam and his father John, taking on the roles of both mother and father for his brother and acting as a guiding force for his father. This can also be construed as an example of covert incest, along with narcissistic abuse.

See also

• Covert incest
• Effects of domestic violence on children
• Fantasy bond
• Ivan Böszörményi-Nagy
• Jocasta complex
• Maud Mannoni
• Narcissistic abuse

References

Further reading

• Hooper, L. M. (2011). Parentification. In R. J. R. Levesque (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Adolescence, (Vol. 4, pp. 2023–2031). New York, NY: Springer.

Gregory J. Jurkovic, Lost Childhoods (1997)

• Collection of studies focused on the measurement, processes, and outcomes associated with Parentification:

http://guru.louisville.edu/parentification/

• Hooper, L. M., DeCoster, J., White, N., & Voltz, M. L. (2011). Characterizing the magnitude of the relation between parentification and psychopathology: A meta-analysis.

Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67, 1028-1043. doi:10.1002/jclp.20807

External links

• Harming Your Child by Making Him Your Parent
• Parentification Research