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Objectives: Parental burnout is a prevalent condition that affects parents' functioning and health. While various protective factors have been examined, little is known about their interplay. In the current study, we examined the joint effect of two protective factors against parental burnout (one external-social support and one internal-cognitive reappraisal). We were specifically interested in whether the presence of one factor could compensate for the lack of the other., Methods: To address this question, 1835 participants were drawn from five countries: United States, Poland, Peru, Turkey and Belgium., Results: Results suggested that both social support and cognitive reappraisal were associated with lower parental burnout. An interaction was also found between the resource factors, such that the presence of cognitive reappraisal compensated for the absence of social support., Conclusions: These findings point to ways in which parental burnout could be reduced, especially in situations where social support is not easily available., (© 2022 British Psychological Society.)

Despite its significant growth over the past fifteen years, research on parental burnout is just beginning to explore the relationships of the syndrome with child behavior. Previous research with adolescents has shown the existence of associations between parental burnout and internalizing and externalizing behaviors in the offspring. The current study is an attempt to (i) replicate this preliminary evidence specifically among Chilean preschool children and (ii) explore the mediating/moderating effects of positive parenting that may be involved in these putative associations. A sample of 383 Chilean mothers participated in this cross-sectional online study. The results confirmed the associations between parental burnout and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. We also observed that positive parenting was a mediator in the relationship linking parental burnout and the child's internalizing (full mediation) and externalizing (partial mediation) behaviors. Positive parenting also partially mediated the association between the child's externalizing behavior and parental burnout. Our results further suggested that the child's externalizing behavior was possibly a more substantial contributing factor to parental burnout than the child's internalizing behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive parenting prescriptions prevailing in Western countries encourage parents to regulate their emotions and, more specifically, to show more positive emotion to their children and control negative emotions while parenting. The beneficial effect of this practice on child development has been much documented, but its possible costs for parents have been much less researched. The current study borrowed the well-known emotional labor framework from organizational psychology to examine this issue. We sought to answer five questions in particular: (1) Do parents perceive display rules? (i.e., do they feel pressured to up-regulate positive emotions and down-regulate negative emotions while parenting?) (2) Do parents make regulatory efforts to comply with these rules? (3) Is this costly? (4) Is it possible that these regulatory efforts are associated with higher risk of parental burnout? (5) Are there strategies that render this effort less costly? We investigated these questions in a sample of 347 parents. The results revealed that parents perceive emotional display rules, which were associated with more regulatory efforts and then a higher vulnerability to parental burnout. How parents meet display rules also matters, in that regulating emotions superficially (i.e., surface acting) is more detrimental than regulating genuinely (i.e., deep acting). Overall, these results support the translation of the emotional labor framework to the parenting context, which helps us understand how external pressures on parents may increase parental burnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible that striving for flawlessness and perfection in their children's performance is detrimental to parents? Could it be so harmful that it exposes parents to the risk of burnout? In order to answer these questions, this study adopted a three-dimension model of child-oriented perfectionism (encompassing three dimensions: high standards, order, and discrepancy) and examined the association of these dimensions with parental burnout. The participants were 325 Polish parents (78.8 % mothers) who lived in the same household with at least one child aged 3 to 19 years. The results showed that discrepancy—parents' perception that their children failed to meet their standards and expectations—was a crucial dimension of child-oriented perfectionism that put parents at risk of burnout; however, parents' emotional intelligence mitigated such harmful effects. The study contributes to knowledge about the antecedents of parental burnout and provides insight into possible interventions to counter the risk of striving as parents for perfect children. • Child-oriented perfectionism (COP) is related to parental burnout (PB). • Discrepancy predicts higher PB. • Emotional intelligence (EI) buffers the effect of discrepancy on PB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have revealed that parenting perfectionism, especially the dimension of perfectionistic concerns, is a substantial risk factor for parental burnout, but this association can be buffered by emotional intelligence. Less is known, however, about the underlying mechanism of these observations. This study examined an integrated model consisting of both the indirect path from perfectionistic concerns to parental burnout through expressive suppression, and the moderating effect of emotional intelligence in the association of both perfectionistic concerns and expressive suppression with parental burnout. We investigated this model in a sample of Polish parents (N = 439). The results revealed that emotional intelligence buffered both the positive direct and indirect (through expressive suppression) effects of perfectionistic concerns on parental burnout, therefore supporting the model. In addition to expanding the understanding of the emotional experiences of perfectionistic parents, the present study also provides practical implications for treating and preventing parental burnout. • Parenting perfectionism (PP) is positively related to parental burnout (PB). • Expressive suppression is positively related to PB. • Perfectionistic concerns (PC) predict higher PB via expressive suppression. • Emotional intelligence (EI) buffers the effect of suppression on PB. • EI buffers the effect of perfectionistic concerns on PB via suppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]