Parentificatie in gescheiden gezinnen

Abstract

This article is about parentification of young adults in separated families. The aim of this study is to investigate whether or not there is a relation between parentification and the problems young adults reported after parental divorce and if there are gender differences on both parentification and experienced problems. Also, this study will examine if gender has a significant effect on the relation between the variables. There were 264 participants in this study aged 16 to 24 (M = 21,25, SD = 2,32). The data has been collected through an online questionnaire: Choose for you [KIES voor jou]. All of the subjects’ parents were separated or were going to be separated. The results from a Pearson correlation test show that there is a positive relation between parentification and the divorce-related problems of young adults. Further, there were significant gender differences found for parentification: girls scored higher than boys. Gender was not a significant moderator according to the regression analysis, so gender does not affect the relation between parentification and experienced problems. These findings show that late adolescents and young adults may report problems after the separation of their parents. Moreover, these problems are significantly related to the parentification they experience, even when the adolescents no longer reside with their parents. Not a lot is known about the problems this target population experiences. Therefore, it is important that more research will be done, especially regarding the effects of divorce on late adolescents and young adults.