Exploring effects of childhood parentification on adult‐depressive symptoms in Korean college students

Abstract

Objective: This study explored parentification dimensions, the age of onset, duration, and family circumstances to better understand the characteristics of parentification and its impact on depressive symptoms among Korean college students.Method: A sample of South Korean college students (N = 316, aged 18-29 years, 66.1% female) rated their childhood parentification experiences and current depressive symptoms.Results: Overall, there were few significant differences in parentification dimensions and depressive symptoms regarding family circumstances that contributed to parentification. Longer duration and earlier onset of parentification were significantly associated with higher depressive symptom scores in adulthood. However, only perceived unfairness was associated with depressive symptoms after controlling for the age of onset, duration, and other parentification dimensions.Conclusions: These findings suggest the importance of examining situational contexts of parentification to better capture the effects of childhood parentification on depressive symptoms in adulthood. K E Y W O R D Sadult depressive symptoms, age of onset, childhood parentification, culture, duration, family environmental circumstances

Does Locus of Control Influence Parentification and Anxiety in Father–Daughter Relationships?

“…Specifically, Asian American and Latin American adolescents indicated they expected to provide support to family, and they exhibited less difference between their perceptions and their parents' values compared to adolescents from a European background. Among Korean college students perceived fairness contributed to associations of parentification and depressive symptoms (Cho & Lee, 2019). Thus, results from these studies allude to the importance of perceptions of children's expectations about their roles in their family.…”

Parentification Experiences of Filipino Young Professional Daughters During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Furthermore, the parentification experience differs from one person to another, depending on the family's circumstances relinquishing their parental role to their child. The parent's abdication of their role commonly happens in the following: (a) substance use and dependence, (b) environment or contextual factors (e.g., military culture, poverty) and (c) serious medical condition, (d) guardian's poor parenting skills conditions (Cho & Lee, 2019). Indeed, parentification's positive or negative effects depend on whom the parentification is oriented towards either the parent or the sibling and the nature of those relationships (Burton et al, 2018).…”

“…On the contrary, Borchet et al (2020) argued that parentification experience increases the child's sense of maturity, self-resilience, empathy, and social understanding (Borchet et al, 2020). The benefits and consequences of parentification depend on age appropriateness and cultural and familial context (Cho & Lee, 2019). Overall, the parentification experience depends on numerous internal and external factors and circumstances to determine its effect on the parentified child.…”

Parentification in Polish Adolescents: a Prevalence Study

“…The gender differences in parentification have been debated, given that findings are inconsistent. Studies that indicate there are no gender differences in parentification can be found (Cho & Lee, 2019;Vulliez-Coady et al, 2013), as well as studies showing that females report higher parentification than males (Byng-Hall, 2008;Schier et al, 2015;Stein et al, 1999;Thomas, 2017) or that males report higher parentification than females do (Arellano et al, 2018;Hooper et al, 2015). At the same time, researchers point out that parentification in boys may be underreported and underestimated as they may be reluctant to admit to carrying out tasks that are considered as not in line with the gender stereotype.…”