Faculty Publications

An Investigation Of A Polish Version Of The Parentification Inventory

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Confirmatory factor analysis, Parentification, Parentification inventory, Psychometric studies, Role reversal

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Child and Family Studies

Volume

31

Issue

10

First Page

2769

Last Page

2784

Abstract

Parentification is defined as a pattern of family interactions in which children and adolescents are required to engage in adult-like roles and responsibilities typically reserved for parents. Parentification can interfere with child and adolescent development resulting in harmful outcomes in childhood and later in adulthood. Unfortunately, few measures exist for investigating and assessing parentification, with only a few measures developed and validated among Polish populations. In the current article, we report on two studies that explore the psychometric properties of an adapted version of the Parentification Inventory (PI) designed to assess caregiving among individuals who experienced varying degrees of parentification in their family of origin. The current article presents results from two non-overlapping samples (N = 693 [Study 1]; N = 252 [Study 2]) comprised of Polish emerging adults. In Study 1, the results from exploratory and confirmatory analyses demonstrated the adapted three-factor Polish version of the PI produced scores that are reliable and valid, although with significantly fewer items (22 vs. 12) than the original PI. In Study 2, the results confirmed the adapted Polish version of the PI scores were related to constructs (self-esteem and parent conflict) in theoretically expected ways. We conclude parentification is likely a culture-bound family systems construct that demands careful consideration by international researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. The psychometric properties of scores derived from the PI confirmed the multidimensional model proposed by Hooper (2009) and validated in US samples. The current studies also confirmed the PI—although with 12 items—is a suitable measure to be used with Polish families.

Department

Center for Educational Transformation

Original Publication Date

10-1-2022

DOI of published version

10.1007/s10826-022-02338-6

Link to Full Text

Comments?

Share

COinS