Family Processes and Children's Representations of Parentification

Abstract

SUMMARY This study investigated relationships between interparental conflict, parental responses to children's emotions, and representations of role-reversal and vulnerability in children's family drawings. As predicted, more frequent interparental conflict and more child involvement in inter-parental conflict were associated with drawings rated higher in role-reversal and maternal satisfaction with conflict strategies was associated with drawings rated lower in vulnerability. For younger children, efficacy of conflict resolution was also related to higher ratings of role-reversal. Further, thematic content of conflict associated with role-reversal and vulnerability was examined. Mothers whose children's drawings were rated high in both role-reversal and vulnerability reported higher levels of problems in several areas than did other mothers. The findings support family systems models emphasizing the relationship between problems in the marital subsystem and problems in parent-child subsystems. Implications of these findings for clinicians using family drawings in assessment or treatment are discussed.