Parentification Among Children Whose Parents Cope With a Serious Mental Illness

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.