Ethnic differences in the developmental significance of parentification

Abstract

Using an ecological framework, this 2-wave longitudinal study examined the effects of parentification on youth adjustment across the transition to adolescence in a high-risk, low-income sample of African American (58%) and European American (42%) mother-child dyads (T1 Mage = 10.17 years, T2 Mage = 14.89 years; 52.4% female). Children's provision of family caregiving was moderately stable from early to late adolescence. Emotional and instrumental parentification evidenced distinct long-term effects on adolescents' psychopathology and the quality of the parent-child relationship. Ethnicity moderated these relations. Emotional and instrumental parentification behaviors were associated with predominantly negative outcomes among European American youth in the form of increased externalizing behavior problems and decreased parent-child relationship quality, whereas emotional parentification was associated with positive outcomes among African American youth in the form of increased parent-child relationship quality, and instrumental parentification was neutral. These findings support a multidimensional view of parentification as a set of culturally embedded phenomena whose effects can only be understood in consideration of the context in which they occur.

Keywords: Adolescence; Ecological Theory; Ethnic Differences; Parent-child Relations; Parentification; Psychopathology.

Figure 1

Interaction of Emotional Parentification and Ethnicity on Externalizing Behavior Problems at Time 2. Note. EA = European American; AA = African American. Low and high emotional parentification are graphed at 1 SD below and above the mean, respectively.

Figure 2

Interaction of Emotional Parentification and Ethnicity on Relations with Parents at Time 2. Note. EA = European American; AA = African American. Low and high emotional parentification are graphed at 1 SD below and above the mean, respectively.

Figure 3

Interaction of Emotional Parentification and Ethnicity on Parental Involvement at Time 2. Note. EA = European American; AA = African American. Low and high emotional parentification are graphed at 1 SD below and above the mean, respectively.

Figure 4

Interaction of Instrumental Parentification and Ethnicity on Relations with Parents at Time 2. Note. EA = European American; AA = African American. Low and high instrumental parentification are graphed at 1 SD below and above the mean, respectively.