The research will examine effects of personal, familial, societal and intergenerational characteristics on parentification, the effects of parentification on the quality of life of the child and what encourages a better quality of life. This research will include 130 children between the ages of 10-18 who live with at least one parent who struggles with serious mental illness in a comparison to 130 children of the same socio-demographic characteristics raised by parents from a non-clinical population. The differences between these two populations with regard to parentification, quality of life, social support and fairness will also be examined. The parents and the children will fill out questionnaires. The research group will be recruited from rehabilitation services, mental health clinics, psychiatric hospitals and social welfare departments with sampling method. The comparison group will be recruited from schools. This research broadens the knowledge of the causes and the repercussions of parentification among children of parents who struggles with serious mental illness in comparison with children raised by parents from a non-clinical population. Few studies have examined children of the mentally ill in Israel, and there are none which examined parentification.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
130
The research will examine effects of personal, familial, societal and intergenerational characteristics on parentification, the effects of parentification on the quality of life of the child and what encourages a better quality of life.
Rehabilitation Services
All the Country, Israel, Israel
RECRUITINGFilial Responsibility Scale-Youth (child fill out)
Responses to the 34-items are given on a 4-point Likert scale ("not at all true" to "very true") and assess instrumental caregiving (e.g., "I work to make money for my family"),emotional caregiving (e.g., "I often try to keep the peace in my family")and perceived fairness (e.g., "In my family, I am often asked to do more than my share."). Higher scores indicate higher levels of caregiving and perceived fairness.
Time frame: 1 year
The Social Support Appraisals Scale (Dubow & Ullman,1989)(child fill out)
31-item scale assesses the child's appraisals of peer, family, and teacher support.The child responds to each item on a 5-point continuum (1 = always, 5 =never).
Time frame: 1 year
"The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire"; Shelton, Frick & Wootton, 1996 (parent fill out)
The APQ measures five dimensions of parenting that are relevant to the etiology and treatment of child externalizing problems: (1) positive involvement with children, (2) supervision and monitoring, (3) use of positive discipline techniques, (4) consistency in the use of such discipline and (5) use of corporal punishment. This study use only positive involvement dimension
Time frame: 1 year
Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) (parent fill out)
Two scales termed 'care' and 'overprotection' or 'control', measure fundamental parental styles as perceived by the child. The measure is 'retrospective', meaning that adults (over 16 years) complete the measure for how they remember their parents during their first 16 years. The measure is to be completed for both mothers and fathers separately. There are 25 item questions, including 12 'care' items and 13 'overprotection' items.
Time frame: 1 year
Social support and social conflict (parent fill out)
Questions were developed to measure the affect, affirmation, and aid components of social support from Extended family and spouse. social support and social conflict items were rated on 5-point Likert-type scales with options that ranged from not at all to a great deal
Time frame: 1 year
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