Marolyn Wells

Parentification, Parental Alcoholism, and Academic Status among Young Adults.

Abstract This study examined 360 young adults in terms of their perceptions of having assumed a parentified role in their family of origin as a function of academic status and classification as children of alcoholics or nonalcoholics. Low academic status participants reported having experienced greater caretaking responsibilities and worries in their families than those admitted into a regular academic undergraduate program. Respondents who had an alcoholic parent scored higher on the parentification measure than those who were children of problem drinkers and children of nonalcoholics.

Codependency: A grass roots construct's relationship to shame-proneness, low self-esteem, and childhood parentification

This article analyzes the relationships among four independent variables and the construct of codependency. Results indicate that shameproneness, self-esteem, and parentification are significantly related to codependent characteristics. Results also indicate that guilt-proneness is inversely related to codependency, reinforcing the hypothesis that codependency represents a shame-based, as opposed to a guilt-based, organization of the self. Treatment recommendations are offered related to alleviating shame, raising self-esteem, and resolving parentification.

Relationship among childhood parentification, splitting, and dissociation: Preliminary findings

Abstract On the basis of self-reports front 124 undergraduate students, empirical support was found for the hypothesis that childhood parentification (i.e., the reversal of child and parent roles) is significantly related to defensive splitting (on the Gerson Splitting Scale [M. J. Gerson, 1984] in adulthood even when the effects of dissociation (measured by Dissociative Experiences Scale [E. M. Bernstein & F. W. Putnam, 1986] are already accounted for. In contrast, childhood parentification was not found to be significantly related to the use of cognitive dissociation when the effects of splitting were accounted for. This finding is particularly important because splitting and dissociation are often related and sometimes confused with one another in the psychology literature. The authors relate these results to earlier findings that parentification is associated with both masochistic and narcissistic personality styles in adults and that individuals who have been parentified have diminished capacities fo...

Codependency's Relationship to Defining Characteristics in College Students

Abstract Evidence garnered by this study may help provide college counselors with a clinically useful model of codependency, informing their assessment and treatment planning of students who present with self-identified codependency characteristics. Specifically, codependence inclined students may exhibit tendencies toward self-defeating and covert patterns of narcissistic relating (e.g., rejection sensitivity, attachments to painful relationships, shame-proneness, caretaking to earn relationship). Additionally, this study raises the possibility that codependency might be as closely related to fears of intimacy and being hurt in relationship as it is related to a preoccupied concern over maintaining or controlling a security relationship. These results, together with the negative relationship between codependency and overt narcissism, lend preliminary support for Cermaks conceptualization of codependency as a complement to narcissism.

Narcissistic characters with obsessive features: Diagnostic and treatment considerations

ConclusionIn sum, in this article a mixed personality disorder is described that combines narcissistic and obsessive-compulsive features. These features include extreme perfectionism, narcissistic cathexis of the intellect, and obsessive-compulsive defenses against underlying narcissistic issues.In therapy, narcissistic characters with obsessive features frequently struggle between a need for engagement with and fear of engulfment by the therapist. Thus, while they may appear extroverted, they often remain aloof, and while they have a strong need to be understood, they frequently reject the therapist’s empathic statements.Therapy of the narcissistic character with obsessive features consists of two stages. In the first phase of treatment, the therapist addresses the patient’s narcissistic issues and provides an appropriate selfobject relationship. In the second phase of treatment (after greater self-development is established), the therapist begins to address the obsessive-compulsive issues of affective expression and control by assuming a more engaged, initiating, and personal stance with the client.