What are the origins of the idea of parentification? Can you unpack the assumptions loaded into the concept and why you chose this particular approach to understanding family dynamics in the asylum centers? So why not, for example, use a term like kinship care or family adjustment?

That's a very important question indeed.

The term parentification originates from psychology, specifically the field of family therapy.

The concept of the parental child was first introduced by Argentinian-American psychotherapist Salvador Minuchin, the founder of structural family therapy.

to describe structural reorganizations within families.

His research focused on underprivileged families in the ghettos of New York, where he observed situations in which children took on parenting and other executive roles, such as earning income or performing household repairs when their parents were unable or unwilling to fulfill these responsibilities.

This was interpreted as dysfunction within the parental subsystem.

I think Kak can also add some more.