Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in parentification in military families with a deployed parent and without a deployed parent. Previous research has highlighted increased rates of parentification in situations involving parental absence or unavailability, such as divorce, parental illness, parental alcoholism, and domestic violence. This construct was assessed using the Parentification Questionnaire - Youth, a 20 item self-report survey for children and adolescents. Participants consisted of 22 children, ages 7-17, from military families with a deployed parent and military families without a deployed parent. After removing two statistical outliers from the intact military families group, an independent samples t-test was conducted. It was found that there was a significant difference between military families with a deployed parent and military families without a deployed parent. Military families with a deployed parent had higher rates of parentification than military families without a deployed parent. Limitations include a small sample size due to time constraints, the possible presence of one or both parents during the questionnaire, and lack of control groups. Future research should include a larger sample size, increase the comparison to more family groups (i.e. civilian, divorced, separated by work), and assess possible positive or negative impacts of parentification on military children from families separated by deployment.

Notes

If this is your Honors thesis, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Thesis Completion

2014

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Neer, Sandra M.

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences; Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic

Format

PDF

Identifier

CFH0004568

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS