Keep It Quiet: Mother-Daughter Parentification and Difficulties in Separation-Individuation Shaping Daughters’ Authentic/True Self and Self-Silencing: A Mediation Model

The current study employed a mediation model to explore the contribution of mother-adolescent daughter (N = 208, M_age = 15.02) parentification and difficulties in separation-individuation to these adolescent girls’ authenticity/true self and self-silencing. Specifically, the model examined whether mother-daughter separation-individuation would mediate the relationships between mother-daughter parentification and motives for false-self behaviors and authenticity, which in turn would mediate the links between mother-daughter separation-individuation and self-silencing. The findings indicated that parentification was positively correlated with girls’ difficulties in separation-individuation, which in turn was negatively correlated with girls’ authenticity, and through it, was positively correlated with girls’ self-silencing. These findings highlight the negative consequences of parentification on girls’ self-system and point to the role of difficulties in separation-individuation and authenticity as mechanisms through which parentification contributes to Israeli adolescent girls’ self-silencing. These results are discussed in terms of attachment theory and developmental psychopathology.