Introduction: Mental health is an essential component of health and is more than just the absence of mental disorders and disability. The early years of a child’s life are very important for later mental health, as skills that directly affect mental health in adulthood develop during this period. Parents or family members, who are child’s first teachers, have an important responsibility to ensure that a child develops a healthy and prosperous life and becomes independent. An important factor influencing good mental health of children and adolescents is adequate parental support; without parental support, adolescents are at greater risk for psychological distress. An important factor that can lead to mental health problems is the emotional parental abuse, which includes a child taking on parental roles – parentification. It is a process by which a child is assigned the role of an adult. A child assumes the emotional and instrumental responsibility that a parent should normally take, while neglecting his or her needs to meet the needs of the parents. Purpose: The purpose of the diploma work is to study the relevant literature and to investigate what are the risk factors for the child's parentification and what are its effects on mental health of adolescents. Methods: In the diploma work, we used a descriptive research method. A systematic review of Slovenian and foreign professional literature was made with the help of the PubMed browser and databases such as Google Scholar, Cinahl and Medline. Fully freely available literature published since 2000 has been included in the review. Results: A complex relationship between parent and child can jeopardize family roles, interpersonal boundaries and normal and healthy development of a child or adolescent. The existing literature on child’s parentification has shown that the process is in fact detrimental to most children and can be associated with poor functioning in adulthood. How harmful the consequences of a child’s parentification will be depends on several factors. The most important factor causing negative effects of this process is the age at which the adolescent began to take on parental roles, in addition, duration and frequency of stress that the adolescent experienced as a child are also important factors. Despite the aforementioned detrimental effects of parentification, this process is not always detrimental. If the tasks are appropriate for the child's age, development and in accordance with cultural and family aspects, child’s parentification can have positive effects, as the child gains a sense of maturity and self-confidence by taking on parental roles. Discussion and conclusion: The child's parentification is associated primarily with the negative consequences of this process. Young people can cope with difficult situations in the long run, which can lead to the accumulation of tension and problems, so young people need to be provided with appropriate support by participating in cognitive-behavioral therapy.
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