Depression and Parentification among Adults as Related to Parental Workaholism and Alcoholism

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Abstract
Investigators examined relationships among levels of depression and parentification in undergraduate university students. Instrument scores were used to identify participants as (a) adult children with alcoholic parents, (b) adult children with workaholic parents, (c) adult children with at least one parent who was both alcoholic and workaholic, and (d) a comparison group composed of adult children who met none of the other group criteria. Children of workaholics scored significantly higher on measures of depression and parentification, and they reported parents worked more hours than did parents of children of alcoholics and the comparison group. Children of alcoholics scored significantly higher than the comparison group on the measure of parentification. Children with parents who met both descriptions scored significantly higher than children of alcoholics and the comparison group on the three dimensions described and on combined number of hours both parents worked.