Narratives of Tagasalo

Experiences Among
Overseas Filipino Workers
MI RI A M GRA C E A Q U I NO -MA LA BA NA N

PSY 8 0 2
Tagasalo Personality
Tagasalo

▪ The ‘tagasalo personality’ was first introduced by clinical

psychologist Ma. Lourdes A. Carandang in 1987 but she
referred to it as a tagasalo or mananalo syndrome. She
believes that there is a ‘tagasalo’ in every family dynamic,
specifically the child. These are members of the family who
‘catch’ not just family concerns in terms of chores but also
that of emotional matters (Udarbe, 2001).
LITERATURE

▪ Schaef’s (1990) ‘careaholics’,

▪ Adler’s (1973) ‘redeemer complex’,

▪ Beattie’s (1987) ‘codependency’.

▪ Atenas et al. (2018) adopted the term pagsalo (catch or catching),

▪ Agor et al. (2018) also linked taga-salo to parentification

▪ development of the ‘Tagasalo Personality Scale’ by Tuazon, Calvadores and

Quinain (2021)
Rationale

▪ Since the tagasalo personality was introduced in the context of stress, it would be
interesting to establish if it can be contextualized together with psychological well -
being and other psychological phenomena. As previous studies have illustrated, the
person exhibiting this personality trait would take on roles in the family that are not
originally theirs, such as being a financial and emotional source for the rest of the
family. By taking on these roles, they may be experiencing effects on their
psychological well -being and functioning.

▪ By further exploring the tagasalo personality in the context of other psychological

phenomena, this may lead to designing interventions better fit to the Filipino
character and orientation. It would also strengthen the validity of the Tagasalo
Personality as a construct and help in establishing whether it is a sole Filipino trait
or a universal concept.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

▪ The purpose of this narrative research is to explore

tagasalo narratives among Overseas Filipino Workers.

▪ The main question would be as follows:

▪ “What is your experience as a Tagasalo in your

family?”
METHOD

▪ Participants

▪ Those who will agree to participate in the study will include single OFWs who
have been sole financial providers of their families (parents and/or siblings).
Married OFW’s will be excluded so as not to confuse financial provision as heads of
their own families.

▪ Procedure

▪ Snowball sampling will be used to generate connections to OFW’s who will be

administered the Tagasalo Personality Scale which will be utilized as a screening
tool. Any participant who scores a weighted mean of 3.00 and above will be the
participant of the interview.
METHOD

Analysis

The narrative thematic analysis process I will use consist of five stages: (a)
organization and preparation of the data, (b) obtaining a general sense of the
information, (c) the coding process, (d) categories or themes, and (e)interpretation of
the data. Before determining the essence of the phenomena, a reflective study will be
done to identify the researcher's own personal biases that may have influenced the
reconstruction. Adjustments were made to category associations if it was found that
biases had affected the reconstruction.
METHOD

▪ Ethical Considerations

▪ Participants will have to sign an informed consent before proceeding with the
test administration and interview proper. The informed consent form will adhere to
the ethical guidelines set by LPU -B. If at any point in the interview, the participants
show any signs of discomfort or have verbalized their unwillingness to continue,
the interview may be re -scheduled or stopped altogether. Alternative participants
may be recruited to make -up for attrition.
REFERENCES

▪ Carandang, M.L.A. (1987). Filipino children under stress: Family dynamics and
therapy. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.

▪ Tian, R. L. G. (2004). A construct validation of the tagasalo personality using the

panunukat ng pagkataong pilipino (PPP). Philippine Journal of Psychology , 37(2), 1-1.

▪ Tuazon, A.D. & Quinain, K.T. (2020). Developing a scale to measure tagasalo
personality. PAP Regional Research E -Conference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcjH74M5 -I8

▪ Udarbe, M. H. (2001). The Tagasalo Personality. Philippine Journal of Psychology,

Vol. 34(2), p. 45 - 65.
https://pssc.org.ph/wpcontent/psscarchives/Philippine%20Journal%20of%20Psychol
ogy/2001/Num%202/06_T he%20Tagasalo%20Per sonality.pdf