Three reasons why parental burnout is more prevalent in individualistic countries : a mediation study in 36 countries

Purpose The prevalence of parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children, varies dramatically across countries and is highest in Western countries characterized by high individualism. Method In this study, we examined the mediators of the relationship between individualism measured at the country level and parental burnout measured at the individual level in 36 countries (16,059 parents). Results The results revealed three mediating mechanisms, that is, self-discrepancies between socially prescribed and actual parental selves, high agency and self-directed socialization goals, and low parental task sharing, by which individualism leads to an increased risk of burnout among parents. Conclusion The results confrm that the three mediators under consideration are all involved, and that mediation was higher for self-discrepancies between socially prescribed and actual parental selves, then parental task sharing, and lastly selfdi-rected socialization goals. The results provide some important indications of how to prevent parental burnout at the societal level in Western countries.
Funding IR and MM were supported by a Coordinated Research Grant from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles in Belgium (ARC Grant n°19/24-100). This fund did not exert any infuence or censorship of any kind on the present work.Availability of data and material The full protocol, database, and syntaxes are available on OSF https://osf.io/94w7u/?view_only=a6cf12803887476cb5e7f17cfb8b5ca2.