What Is Parentification?

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Eating disorders are one potential mental health condition that can emerge from childhood parentification.

Insecure attachment may be one attachment type commonly seen in parentification and eating disorders.

By learning how parentification and eating disorders overlap, clinicians can better identify and treat both.

As someone who talks about parentification (a lot), I’ve come to recognize that the connection between eating disorders and parent-child role reversal may not be explicitly clear. There is a winding road among different psychopathologies that may develop as a result of parentification, and eating-disordered behavior is but one of many potential stops on that path. For example, children who experience parentification may become adults who experience depression, anxiety, and alcohol use disorder. Despite this, researchers have found that the impact of parentification on eating disorders, personality disorders, and anxiety disorders is greater than on mood disorders and alcohol use disorder (Hooper and colleagues, 2011). Can we better understand such a complex interplay?

The Importance of Early Attachment Relationships

To grow up with a sense that the world is a safe place, children need to develop healthy attachment relationships with their caregivers. We can understand attachment as the process of bonding with your caregiver as an infant and young child. If you grow up with nurturing, responsive caregivers, your attachment style tends to develop securely and healthily. However, if you grow up with caregivers who are emotionally unavailable, distant,........

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