Losing childhood and gaining responsibilities: a PRISMA based systematic review on consequences of parentification

Parentification is a distortion in the parent–child relationship wherein children are obligated to take on parental responsibilities, often at the expense of their own needs. As a result, they tend to experience adverse consequences including psychological and emotional harm. Our systematic review aims to integrate long and short term developmental consequences of parentification among parentified children by following PRISMA guidelines. We identified six themes by applying thematic analysis on 69 studies. The six themes are Psychological and Emotional distress, Strained Family Relationships, Impact on Identity Formation, Well-being of Parentified Children, Vulnerability to Risky Behaviours and Cultural Influence on Parentification. Psychological distress has emerged as a central theme with sub-themes occurrence of mental-health issues, heightened emotional distress and unresolved emotional conflicts. A sub-theme of boundary dissolution emerged as a precursor as well as an outcome of being parentified. Identity formation of children was impacted due to their caregiving role. Parentified children equated their sense of self-worth with their ability to care for others. They also experience identity foreclosure with lower levels of self-differentiation during their later years. A parallel was drawn between identity formation of parentified children and James Marcia’s theory on identity formation. Although most studies conducted in western countries confirm the association between parentification and insecure attachment style, collectivistic cultures integrate caregiving roles without leading to attachment insecurity. This review sheds light on currently available resources for parentified children. It also provides future directions for designing interventions and policies.