Shen Chen

Parents may develop burnout when they chronically lack the resources to handle parenting stressors. Although the relationship between parental burnout and child-related variables has been explored, its impact on adolescents’ development remains unknown. This study investigates the effect of mothers’ parental burnout on social adaptation and security in adolescents, and the mediating roles of mothers’ parenting styles. Questionnaires were distributed to adolescents and their mothers at three time points with an interval of six weeks. In the first survey, 916 mothers completed a parental burnout assessment. In the second, 1054 adolescents completed maternal rejection and maternal autonomy support scales, and a Harsh Parenting assessment. In the third, 1053 adolescents completed Children and Adolescent Social Adaptation and Security Questionnaires. In total, 411 paired data points were matched (mothers’ age: M = 42.1, SD = 4.65; adolescents’ age: M = 13.1, SD = 0.52). The results of bootstrapping indicated the following: (1) Mothers’ parental burnout negatively predicted adolescents’ social adaptation and security. (2) Mothers’ parenting styles of rejection, harsh parenting, and autonomy support mediated the relationship between parental burnout and social adaptation and security. These findings confirmed the importance of mothers’ influence on adolescents’ parenting activities. Therefore, the enrichment of parenting resources and a decrease in the use of negative parenting styles may promote the healthy psychological development of the children of mothers facing parental burnout.

Recently, the topic of parental burnout has gathered much attention and studies have begun to integrate the parenting and work domain. In this regard, this study aimed to explore the association between work-family enrichment and parental burnout, and the mediation effects of parenting sense of competence and parenting stress. Data were collected at three different time points and questionnaires were distributed to 507 mothers of adolescents. Mothers were asked to report their work-family enrichment and parental burnout at Time (1) Then, their parenting sense of competence and parenting stress at Time (2) Finally, their parental burnout at Time (3) The results of bootstrapping indicated the following: (1) work-family enrichment showed negative association with parental burnout; (2) parenting sense of competence showed negative association with parental burnout, while parenting stress showed positive relation with parental burnout; (3) the relations between work-family enrichment and parental burnout was mediated by parenting sense of competence and parenting stress. Mothers should be made aware that resources from the work domain could buffer against parental burnout directly and indirectly and that when dealing with parental burnout, it is better to take a comprehensive perspective from both family and work domains and pay more attention to the relationships between the two domains.

The present study aimed to examine the effect and underlying mechanism of parental burnout on adolescents’ development as well as the mediating role of parental psychological control. Adolescents’ academic performance, and social distress were selected as developmental indicators. Data were collected on three different occasions using a time-lagged design. Questionnaires were distributed to 565 Chinese families. In the first phase of data collection, fathers and mothers were asked to provide data regarding their parental burnout separately. In the second phase, adolescents were asked to provide details regarding their perceived father and mother’s psychological control. In the third phase, adolescents were asked to provide information on their social distress. At the end of their term, academic performance scores on the final exams were collected. In total, data of 290 students (135 boys; M_age = 13.85 years) and their parents (for fathers age M = 41.91, and for mothers M = 40.76) were matched. The results of the multi-group structural equation model showed that parental burnout was negatively related to adolescents’ development indirectly through parental psychological control. Parental psychological control partial mediated the relation between parental burnout and academic performance, and fully mediated the relation between parental burnout with social adaptation. In addition, mothers’ parental burnout showed a stronger effect than fathers’. Mothers’ parental burnout generally showed significant effects on adolescents’ development, while the same indirect effects were not significant in the sample of fathers. These results showed the importance of mothers’ influence on adolescents in parenting activities, and therefore, attention should be paid to mothers in the intervention and prevention of parental burnout.