The Impact of Parentification on Mental Health and Identity in a Sample of University Students in Lebanon
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Date
2018
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Abstract
Parentification is a role-reversal, or boundary dissolution, where a child is assigned roles and responsibilities that are typically performed by parents. In a convenience sample of 157 university students, the study investigated the effect of past and ongoing “destructive” levels of emotional parentification and perceived unfairness on mental health outcomes and identity development. Participants were recruited from 2 universities, Haigazian University (n=71) and Arab Open University (n=45), both located in Beirut, Lebanon. The remaining participants (n=41) were recruited online. All participants filled out the Demographic Questionnaire, Filial Responsibility Scale-Adult (FRS-A), Identity Distress Scale (IDS) and the Brief Symptoms Inventory- 18 (BSI-18). In a one-way Anova analysis, those who reported ongoing caregiving were found to have significantly more mental health symptoms and identity distress than those who reported low levels of parentification (i.e. No Caregiving Group). Past emotional caregiving and perceived unfairness were positively and significantly correlated to mental health symptoms and identity distress, but did not predict poor outcomes. Ongoing emotional caregiving was found to be positively and significantly correlated to mental health symptoms but not to identity distress, and did not predict poor outcomes. Meanwhile, ongoing perceived unfairness was positively and significantly correlated to mental health symptoms and identity distress, and it predicted mental health symptoms but not identity distress. The results of this study illustrated how in a Lebanese sample, specific caregiving dimensions, ongoing caregiving and perceived unfairness, may be more destructive than other dimensions that are typically associated to poor outcomes (i.e. past emotional caregiving).
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Hajjar, R. (2018). The Impact of Parentification on Mental Health and Identity in a Sample of University Students in Lebanon (SBS thesis, Haigazian University)