Physical and psychological conditions of parental chronic illness, parentification and adolescent psychological adjustment.

Objective

We examined the differential predictive powers of physical and psychological impacts of parental physical illness, as well as both instrumental and emotional aspects of parentification, on adolescent distress.

Design

Forty-seven parents with chronic physical illness and 132 adolescent children completed separate questionnaires that measured parental health conditions and adolescents' parentification, peer attachment, and psychological distress.Main findings: Ill parents' energy/fatigue level was not related to adolescent distress, but ill parents' emotional well-being was directly associated with adolescent distress. Adolescents' household responsibilities were not linked to their distress level; however, higher levels of emotional parentification appeared to affect their psychological adjustment. Higher quality of peer attachment was related to lower adolescent distress.

Conclusions

The results highlight the importance of addressing and fostering physically ill parents' psychosocial adjustment and emotional availability, restoring a sense of normalcy in family adaptation processes, and facilitating emotional support for adolescents, including positive parent-child relationship and peer attachment.