Defining characteristics and potential consequences of caretaking burden among children living in urban poverty

Abstract

Parentification of children has not been the focus of much empirical research. Consequently, this study was designed to explore the defining characteristics and potential consequences of caretaking burden in a sample of 356 children living in urban poverty. In a series of multivariate analyses, characteristics of the children, vocational-educational status of their mothers, and family structure correlated with caretaking burden more consistently than psychiatric, substance use, or personality problems in the mothers. Moreover, responsibility to care for mother, more so than responsibility for household chores or the care of siblings, consistently correlated with the psychosocial adjustment of the children. However, even the highest levels of caretaking burden were not consistently associated with clinically significant compromise of psychosocial adjustment.

Figure 1

Curvilinear relationships involving caretaking burden and child report of psychopathology and social competence. Values for the measures of psychopathology and social competence represent T scores derived from normative data reported by Reynolds and Kamphaus (1992).

Figure 2

Curvilinear relationships involving caretaking burden and maternal report of psychopathology. Values for the measures of psychopathology represent T scores derived from normative data reported by Reynolds and Kamphaus (1992).