Parentification and family responsibility in the family of origin of adult children of alcoholics.

The present study examined parentification and family responsibility in the families of origin of 103 female college students who met criteria for being Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs) as compared to 233 women who did not. The gender of the parent with an alcohol problem (mother only, father only, both parents, neither) was also examined in relation to family roles. Participants completed the Parentification Questionnaire-Adult (PQ-A; Sessions, M. W., and Jurkovic, G. J. (1986). Parentification Questionnaire-Adult (PQ-A). Unpublished document. Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA), the Filial Responsibility Scale-Adult (FRS-A; Jurkovic, G. J., and Thirkield, A. (1999). Filial Responsibility Scale-Adult (FRS-A). Unpublished document. Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA), the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST; Jones, J. W. (1983). The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test: Test manual. Chicago: Camelot), and indicated whether they suspected their mother/father of a drinking problem. ACOAs reported more parentification, instrumental caregiving, emotional caregiving, and past unfairness in their families of origin as compared to non-ACOAs. However, as compared to ACOAs who indicated that their father was the alcohol-abusing parent or non-ACOAs, respondents who thought their mothers had an alcohol problem reported greater past unfairness. In addition, ACOAs who thought their mothers had a problem with alcohol abuse reported more parentification and emotional caretaking than did non-ACOAs.