Abstract
Culture and idiosyncratic family configuration play a significant role in neglect, such as parentification. Some family systems may engender an inappropriate overlap in subsystems, with member participating in roles that are traditionally reserved for other members. We have the case of adolescents in parental roles. The adolescent is brought to make personal choices that will have long term repercussions on varied domains of his life. To this effect, the society should give to him the possibility of a psycho-social moratorium which is a necessary period for the construction of a true identity. So how the construction of self-identity would be effectuated in the case of parentified adolescents. We carried out a semi-structured interview on five adolescents in Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon who are in a situation of parentification. For the analysis, we used the content as well as the thematic analysis of the interviews. The findings show that the parentified adolescent have had no time to live the stage of adolescence. They are early parents because of the responsibilities they carry at an age or time they are not ready or prepared for. What is particular and special about them is the extent to which they are able to construct a positive self and give positive self-view of life. So, the process of parentificatin will have positive repercussions on the construction of ego identity of the adolescent. The findings of this study has shown the importance of contextual study as a good number of literature on parentification have shown the destructive and maladaptive impact of parentification on the development of adolescents.
Highlights
Given that the period of moratorium is of great importance for the construction of a true identity, we are tempted to ask the question to know what happens in a situation where identity is imposed on an adolescent for one reason or the other
One of them Aminatou starts when the mother becomes sick and it accents when she dies, Bosco takes a new identity with the poor health situation of his grand mother, Joseph on his part starts with the poor economic situation of the family and it reaches it peak with the depression of the mother, Ernestine assumes parental roles when the mother becomes an alcoholic and Solomon takes a new identity with the death of both parents
Some family system may engender an inappropriate overlap in subsystem, with members participation in roles that are traditionally reserved for other members, that is parent in childlike roles and children in parental roles
Summary
Given that the period of moratorium is of great importance for the construction of a true identity, we are tempted to ask the question to know what happens in a situation where identity is imposed on an adolescent for one reason or the other. In Cameroon, aspects of parentification are mostly noticed from many angles: children are involved in subsistent activities like selling (groundnuts, water, bananas, oranges and many others), some work as domestic servants, others on farms and a good number in their homes where they carryout a variety of activities like taking care of the younger siblings and of house chores as a result of the absence of the parent especially the mother. Parentification in the family entails a functional and /or emotional role reversal in which the child sacrifices his or her own needs of attention, comfort and guidance in order to accommodate or pay for the emotional or logistical need of the parent (Chasse 1999) This means that the child sacrifices his own personal needs to satisfy those of another person. If parents and friends are supportive to this young person and allow some amount of experimentation with roles, the adolescent will likely end up with a cohesive, full identity that expresses who he is
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