When role reversal and brokering meet: Filial responsibility among young immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union

Traditional conceptualizations of role reversal and brokering (language and cultural in immigration), in which children assume culturally atypical adult responsibilities, have developed as different scholarly domains, despite their theoretical similarity. The purpose of the present article is to increase the integration between the two bodies of literature to achieve a better understanding of filial responsibilities children assume upon immigration and their differential correlates with adjustment. The structure of filial responsibility in immigration, interrelations between its distinct components, and the ability of the brokering roles to add significantly to the predicting of adjustment are studied. Young adult immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel (n = 220) completed the Comprehensive Filial Responsibilities Inventory (CFRI), the Brief Symptom Inventory, and the self-efficacy inventory. Factor analysis identified six CFRI domains with satisfying psychometric properties. The factors are dominance in family, cultural brokering, language brokering, emotional support to parents, self-reliance, and money issues. Hierarchical regression analyses showed a contribution of the brokering roles to prediction of psychological distress above and beyond traditional roles. The results support the validity of the CFRI and contribute to the understanding of interrelations among the various filial responsibilities, including brokering roles.