#parentification

• To adultify — To impose adult behaviors, responsabilities, worries, or mindsets upon a child or adolescent, prematurely depriving them of the natural stages of childhood; to force maturity. As a reflexive verb ('a se adultiza'), the term describes the process whereby a minor assumes an early caregiving role for the family or adopts mature conducts as an adaptive mechanism to a dysfunctional domestic environment marked by parental absence or vulnerability.
• Adultification — The act of adultifying and its dynamic outcome; the psychosocial process whereby a child or adolescent is forced to assume adult roles, decisions, and responsibilities before being emotionally and cognitively prepared. Adultification frequently occurs in environments impacted by poverty, neglect, or chronic parental illness, recognized as a subtle form of emotional abuse affecting self-esteem and future personality structures.