Parentification occurs when children provide caregiving for family members that typically exceeds their capacity and developmental stage. Parentification roles and responsibilities are often linked with deleterious outcomes, including robbing children of age-appropriate opportunities, activities, and support. However, in some circumstances, such as caring for a sibling vs. caring for a parent, parentification may engender feelings of self-efficacy, competence, and other positive outcomes. The primary objective of the current study was to explore the possible benefits of parentification. Using an understudied, international population, the current study tested the benefits of parentification in the context of the sibling relationship. Two research questions guided the study: to what extent are perceived benefits of parentification positively associated with self-esteem among a sample of Polish late adolescents? And to what extent does the quality of the sibling relationship mediate the association between perceived benefits of parentification and self-esteem? Results from the current sample showed the quality of sibling relationships partially mediated the relation between parentification and self-esteem. The findings underline the importance of assessing the quality of sibling relationships when an individual or family presenting for clinical services related to past and current family discord and dysfunction. Future research might consider other factors in the sibling relationship, such as personality, that could relate to positive outcomes from parentification.

Children who experience parentification may have trouble performing developmental tasks due to being overwhelmed by their family caregiving roles and responsibilities. Past studies have found that parentification is negatively associated with academic achievement. However, most of these studies are limited in that they are retrospective and examine the association but not the mechanisms shaping them. The aim of the study was to explore to what extent diverse types of parentification relate to academic achievement and to what extent these relations are mediated by self-reported quality of life among adolescents. The study sample was composed of Polish early adolescents (N = 191; age: M = 14.61; SD = 1.26). Types of parentification were measured with the Parentification Questionnaire for Youth, and quality of life was assessed with KidScreen27. School achievement was measured based on mean semester grade. We explored the associations among study variables and performed six mediation models in the planned analyses. Overall, bivariate relations were significant in a theoretically expected way, although the effect sizes for these associations were rather small. In the mediation analyses, the results showed that four of the six models were not significant. Different from previous studies, instrumental parentification was positively related to school achievement. Additionally, this positive association was mediated by adolescents’ general quality of life. Taken together, the findings were similar and different from the empirical literature base on types of parentification and select outcomes.

Parentification is a form of distorted division of roles and responsibilities in the family where the roles of parent and child are reversed. A situation that goes beyond the child’s capabilities and exhausts resources usually yields numerous negative consequences. Nevertheless, in some circumstances, parentification may be beneficial by shaping resiliency. The main aim of the study was to examine the relations between parentification characteristics and resiliency. There were 208 adolescents (M_age = 14.55; SD_age = 1.00) who participated in the study. Resiliency was evaluated using the Polish Scale for Children and Adolescents SPP-18. Parentification level was measured with the polish Parentification Questionnaire for Youth. The analyses revealed significant relations between parentification and resiliency dimensions. The relations were different based on the participant’s gender. The obtained results underline the role of resiliency in shaping the perception of family role dysfunctions such as parentification.

This study investigated the prevalence of parentification in a nationwide cross-sectional study. There wereN = 47,984 Polish adolescents aged 12–21 (M = 15.60;SD = 1.98; female 52.7%, male 47.3%). The results indicated that more adolescents experienced emotional parentification (toward parents 35.9%; toward siblings 25.2%) as compared to instrumental parentification (toward parents 7.2%; toward siblings 15.5%), which is noteworthy, since emotional parentification is the most detrimental form of parentification in USA samples. Overall, 15.5% of the participants reported a sense of injustice related to their family caregiving roles and 61.2% reported satisfaction related to their family caregiving roles. The results are important given the dearth of prevalence studies.

The aim of the study was to propose a model of risk factors for adolescent materialism related to insecurity feeling from parents and peers. Teenagers aged 13–16 were surveyed. The results of the study showed a good fit for the tested model of the sources of materialism linked to insecurity feeling. Parental emotional support, occurrence of threatening events in the life of the teenager and peer pressure were important predictors of teen materialism. Peer pressure mediated the relationship between parental support, both emotional and material, and teen materialism. The assumed effect of peer pressure mediation in the relationship between peer to peer consumer communication and teen materialism was not confirmed while a direct relationship between peer to peer consumer communication and adolescent materialism was observed. In conclusion, the results of the presented study indicate that the simultaneous occurrence of the three: lack of parental support, occurrence of life-threatening events, and peer pressure constitutes a risk factor of adolescent materialism.

The aim of the study was to examine the role of parents, social media and materialism in teenage activism. We surveyed 13-16 year olds (N = 177). We measured teenagers’ activist “identity and involvement” and activist behavior, parents’ activist behavior, as perceived by their offspring, media use frequency and the purpose of social media use. The results indicate that both teenage activist “identity and involvement” and activist behavior are positively related to both the mother and father’s activist behavior but are negatively related to hedonic use of media. Hedonic use of media and gender are predictors of youth activist “identity and involvement” while mother’s activism, hedonic use of media and the teenager’s age are predictors of youth activist behavior. To sum up, the study indicates that mother’s activism and the purpose of media use are related to teenage activism. It also shows that materialism and media use frequency are not significantly linked to teenage activism.