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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]

Parental burnout (PB) is a chronic stress-related condition resulting from long-lasting exposure to overwhelming parenting stress. Previous studies showing the seriousness of this condition stressed the urgent need to provide researchers and practitioners with effective assessment tools. Validated PB measures are the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI) and the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA). The good psychometric properties of these instruments have been replicated across different samples and countries, but thresholds for identifying impairing PB levels (i.e., cutoff scores) have not yet been established. The present study aims to fill this gap by adopting a multi-informant and multimethod approach to a sample of 192 burned-out and control parents. PBI and PBA cutoffs were derived from the combination of several PB indicators, based on a preregistered analysis strategy. Results identified a score of 74.6 (95% confidence interval (CI) = [69.48–79.68]) for the PBI and 86.3 (95% CI = [79.49–93.03]) for the PBA as indicators of the most severe PB levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental burnout results from chronic stress in parenting, and it can be accompanied by harmful behaviors such as parental neglect and violence (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018). Network analysis examines psychological phenomena within a system of its constituents, and thus it is promising for understanding the distinct features of parental burnout and behaviors related to it. Recently, Blanchard et al. (2021) conducted the first network analysis of parental burnout and related harmful behaviors in the family context, but did so using an outdated measure and conceptualization of parental burnout. In the present study, in a sample of French-speaking parents (N = 3144, from five different previous studies), we aimed to investigate how each of the four features in the new conceptualization of parental burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, feeling fed up, emotional distance, and contrast with the previous parental self) interact with one another and with parental neglect and violence in a network system. In this preregistered reanalysis, we generated two network models commonly used with cross-sectional data: a Graphical Gaussian Model and a Directed Acyclic Graph. Our results point to emotional exhaustion and feeling fed up as key driving forces of the network structure, while emotional distance appears as a critical feature tying parental burnout with parental neglect and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental burnout is a severe disorder resulting from the exposure to chronic stress in the parental role, that can translate into neglectful and violent parental behaviors towards the offspring. This study (N = 1003 parents) aims to examine the relative weight of parental burnout, job burnout, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, borderline personality, sadism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and child abuse potential, in predicting violence and neglect towards the offspring. Social desirability was controlled. When all predictors are entered together in the model, violence and neglect towards the offspring are best predicted by borderline personality and parental burnout. Our results also indicate that sadism is a robust predictor of violence, however weaker than parental burnout and borderline personality. These results emphasize the importance of preventing parental burnout and supporting parents with borderline personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although early work on parental burnout in the 1980s did not link parental burnout to specific parenting situations, the idea that parents affected by specific vulnerability factors were particularly at risk of burnout quickly emerged. Based on the etiological model of parental burnout (i.e., the balance between risks and resources), the objective of this study was to investigate if there were specific vulnerability factors that significantly increase the risk of parental burnout. 2563 parents participated in the study. We compared parents with a child with special needs (n = 25), parents who had adopted a child (n = 130), and single parents (n = 109), to strictly matched control groups of parents. Parents with a child with special needs displayed higher burnout and lower balance between risk and resources than the control group; parents with an adopted child had similar levels of both parental burnout and balance; and single parents had higher parental burnout but similar balance. Parents who combined specific several vulnerability factors were at greater risk of burnout. Single parenthood and adoption do not in themselves trigger a process leading de facto to other risk factors, but having a child with special needs does. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted families' lives around the world. The measures used to contain transmission have led to increased stress and put parents at increased risk for parental burnout (PB). The aim of the current study was to examine the association between COVID-related parental stress and PB, and to test whether emotion regulation (ER) moderated this association. We hypothesised that rumination, which is a generally maladaptive ER strategy, would act as a risk factor. In comparison, we hypothesised that reappraisal, which is a generally adaptive ER strategy, would act as a resilience factor. We assessed 8225 parents from 22 countries using an on-line survey, and focused on general stress and parenting stress. These stressors were associated with greater PB. Importantly, parental ER moderated these associations; rumination strengthened the link between stress-related variables and PB, whereas reappraisal weakened it. This study emphasises the negative effect COVID-19 has on parents and highlights key ER risk and resilience factors. [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]

Exposure to chronic parental stress can lead to parental burnout, a syndrome encompassing three dimensions: an overwhelming exhaustion from one's parental role, an emotional distancing from one's children, and a sense of parental ineffectiveness. The first goal of this study was to examine whether there were different profiles of parents based on their levels of exhaustion, emotional distancing, and inefficacy. The second goal was to investigate the association between these profiles and different forms of neglect and violence toward children (i.e., physical neglect, emotional neglect, physical violence, and verbal violence). 2767 parents who had at least one child living at home completed the survey. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to analyze the data. LPA identified five profiles of parents ("Not in parental burnout", "Inefficient", "At risk of parental burnout", "Emotionally exhausted and distant", and "Burned out parents"), which were associated with different levels and forms of neglect and violence. Profiles in which high levels of exhaustion were associated with high levels of emotional distancing showed much higher levels of neglect and violence. Results also show that physical violence remains lower than the other forms of violence or neglect. The results first suggest that exhausted parents need to be diagnosed and cared for before exhaustion leads to emotional distancing. They also suggest that burned out parents inhibit physical violence more than the other forms of violence and neglect. Highlights: We examined 2767 parents using the Parental Burnout Inventory. We identified five profiles of parents: « Not in parental burnout », « Inefficient », « At risk of parental burnout », « Emotionally exhausted and distant », and « Burned out parents ». Our findings indicated that profiles in which high levels of exhaustion are associated with high levels of emotional distancing show higher levels of neglect and violence. The results suggest clinival intervention before parental exhaustion leads to emotional distancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental burnout is a specific syndrome resulting from enduring exposure to chronic parenting stress. It encompasses three dimensions: an overwhelming exhaustion related to one’s parental role, an emotional distancing with one’s children and a sense of ineffectiveness in one’s parental role. This study aims to facilitate further identification of antecedents/risk factors for parental burnout in order to inform prevention and intervention practices. In a sample of 1723 french-speaking parents, we examined the relationship between parental burnout and 38 factors belonging to five categories: sociodemographics, particularities of the child, stable traits of the parent, parenting and family-functioning. In 862 parents, we first examined how far these theoretically relevant risk factors correlate with burnout. We then examined their relative weight in predicting burnout and the amount of total explained variance. We kept only the significant factors to draw a preliminary model of risk factors for burnout and tested this model on another sample of 861 parents. The results suggested that parental burnout is a multi-determined syndrome mainly predicted by three sets of factors: parent’s stable traits, parenting and family-functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Numerous studies have found alexithymia to be negatively associated with psychological distress. However, the nature of such an association remains unclear and controversial. Whereas some authors consider alexithymia as a stable personality trait constituting a vulnerability factor regarding mental disorders, other authors view it as a defensive mechanism secondary to the occurrence of psychological distress. The present prospective study (12 weeks follow-up) examines the stability of alexithymia in the context of acute changes in the level of psychological distress. Contrary to most previous studies that have examined alexithymia stability after a reduction in psychological distress, this study examines alexithymia stability in the context of increase in psychological distress. Four indicators of stability were considered: absolute, mean-level, rank-order and relative stability. Although not absolutely stable, alexithymia was found to show a high degree of relative stability despite the acute increase in psychological distress. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Evidence of gender differences in parental burnout has been replicated in several studies and in several cultures, showing a higher level of parental burnout in mothers but a greater sensitivity of fathers to this serious condition. However, the reasons for these differences have never been tested empirically. In this study, we tested whether mothers’ higher level of burnout is related to their greater investment in parenting activities. We also tested the greater sensitivity of fathers to a stress factor that is highly associated with parental burnout, emotion regulation. 1,322 Brazilian parents (41.3% fathers) participated in the study during the pandemic, which was regarded as a context in which parental stress naturally increased. The results confirmed mothers’ higher mean level of parental burnout. Contrary to our expectations, the results also revealed that mothers still experienced higher parental burnout than fathers even when we strictly controlled for the level of involvement in parenting. They also showed that compared to fathers, mothers were more susceptible to emotion dysregulation and to a stressful situation affecting parenting (i.e. the pandemic). Avenues for future studies are twofold. First, they should investigate alternative explanations for gender differences in parental burnout. Second, to the extent that gender moderates the impact of risk factors on parental burnout, future studies should identify specific risk factors for mothers on the one hand and for fathers on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Parental burnout and hair cortisol are significantly positively correlated. • Parental burnout and hair cortisol relation held after controlling for job burnout. • Hair cortisol of parents in burnout is twice as high as that of control parents. • Hair cortisol concentration is a potential biomarker of parental burnout symptoms. • A high level of stress in parents with parental burnout activates the HPA axis. Parental Burnout (PB) is a chronic stress-related disorder experienced in the parental role. Recent studies have shown that PB is a serious condition with severe consequences for parents (e.g., suicidal ideations) and children (e.g., parental neglect and violence). However, PB's biological correlates have not yet been examined. Numerous studies suggest that hair cortisol concentration (HCC) is a valid biomarker of a variety of chronic stress conditions. HCC has been shown to be related to job burnout, but no studies have looked at the association between HCC and parental burnout. Given that the two forms of burnout are only weakly related, it is important to fill this gap. In this study, we compared HCC of parents suffering from PB (N = 119) to that of control parents (N = 59). We also examined the correlation between PB scores and HCC levels, controlling for job burnout symptoms. The results showed that HCC was 213 % higher in parents suffering from PB (mean level: 99.90 pg/mg) compared to controls (mean level: 46.83 pg/mg). Moreover, HCC was significantly related to PB (r = 0.27). These findings suggested that HCC can be considered as a biomarker of PB (though with caution, as 36.1 % of the parents in PB had HCC values equal to or below the mean of the control parents) and reinforce the view that HCC is a biomarker of chronic stress conditions. The HCC levels observed in parents suffering from PB point to the importance of this condition as well as its potential harmful consequences for their health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Adequate self-management activities are important predictors of diabetes outcomes. As diabetes literacy and self-efficacy are strong predictors of diabetes self-care, self-management education programs focus essentially on these factors. This study investigated whether emotional distress or depression moderates the relation between health literacy, self-efficacy and diabetes self-care behaviors.Methods: 128 people with type 2 diabetes were recruited in hospitals, through general practitioners and via a diabetes website, and completed a questionnaire assessing health literacy, self-efficacy, diabetes-related distress, depression and self-care behaviors.Results: Multiple regression analysis confirms that health literacy and self-efficacy significantly predict reported self-care behaviors. Additional regression analyses reveal that distress or depression do not predict self-care behaviors directly, but moderate the effect of health literacy, which has a weaker impact in patients experiencing distress or depression. In contrast, distress and depression do not moderate the effect of self-efficacy on diabetes self-care behaviors.Conclusion: Emotional distress, whether related to diabetes or not, prevents patients from acting on their competence to perform adequate self-management behaviors.Practice Implications: Diabetes Professionals should pay more attention to the patients' affective state and its influence on self-care. Psychological support should be integrated in the care for people suffering from type 2 diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background: The fact that alexithymia is associated with several medical and psychiatric disorders suggests that it may be a vulnerability factor for various diseases, possibly by enhancing stress responses. To test this “alexithymia-stress hypothesis”, we measured the influence of alexithymia and alexithymia subfactors on the cortisol response to an acute stressor. Methods: Twenty-eight male students were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), during which saliva samples for cortisol determination were collected. Results: Subjects reacted to the stressor with a significant cortisol response. Subjects scoring high on alexithymia evidenced an increased basal anticipatory cortisol level but their peak cortisol and area under the curve were similar to that of low scorers. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the increased cortisol in high scorers was due to only one subfactor of alexithymia, “the difficulty in describing feelings” factor (DDF). DDF high scorers reacted with a large increase in cortisol during anticipation but not during exposure to the stress test. Conclusion: The observation that alexithymia scores were associated with differences in cortisol levels before social stress exposure raises the possibility that alexithymia modulates cortisol levels, possibly by affecting the anticipatory cognitive appraisal of situations. This may be essentially attributed to the DDF factor. This observation sheds new light on the “alexithymia-stress hypothesis”, which may be of importance to better understand the relationship between alexithymia and diseases. Further studies to address this issue should focus on the factorial structure of the construct and on the importance of anticipation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]