Perceived childhood emotional parentification is associated with Machiavellianism in men but not in women

What is it about?

This retrospective study investigated whether Machiavellianism (a deceitful, cynical, manipulative attitude) was associated with memories of parentification in childhood (child forced into a parental role by parents or circumstances) in adult participants. Based on our previous results (Láng & Birkás, 2014) adolescents with high Machiavellianism scores perceived their families to function in a chaotic manner. This chaos (e.g., lack of stable roles) includes parentification. Manipulating others might be considered as an effort to cope with chaos, to control interpersonal reality. Results of this study showed that indeed Machiavellianism was related to emotional parentification - only in men.

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Why is it important?

Even with its design flaws, this study is important in at least two ways. (1) It integrates developmental perspective into Machiavellianism research. (2) This study is among the few that investigate gender differences in the development or manifestation of Machiavellianism.

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