reSEArch-EU - European University of the Seas

Exploring parentification process in Poland – outcomes and determinants

Parentification is a form of distorted division of roles and responsibilities in the family where those roles are being reversed. This process is complex, immersed in the culture, and multidimensional. Such boundary dissolutions, family hierarchy distortions, and lack in parental care may stem from the intergenerational transmission of dysfunctional family roles and responsibilities (i.e., the parent’s own experience of childhood parentification and neglect), or be related to the parent’s inability to perform the parental role because of, for example, substance dependence, mental/physical illness, personality disorders, marital conflict, or migration and other issues. As a consequence, for children and adolescents, parentification may pose a threat to their development, impeding fulfillment of their developmental tasks, including learning at school or developing healthy peer relationships.

Results of a prevalence study, original studies as well as psychometric studies will be discussed.

In the academic year 2019/2020 Judyta Borchet was receiving the Etiuda doctoral scholarship from the Polish National Science Center (Narodowe Centrum Nauki); project number 2019/32/T/HS6/00084.