Parental Burnout During COVID-19: Balancing New Risks and Resources

• In Event: Parenting in a Pandemic World: A Spotlight on Parental Burnout

Abstract

For parents, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in repeated and simultaneous changes to working conditions, childcare, and schooling. Moreover, parents are concerned about the health of their families, financial well-being and job security, and an uncertain future. One possible consequence of this stress is parental burnout. The Balances between Risks & Resources Theory (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018) posits that parental burnout occurs when there is a chronic imbalance between parenting risks and resources. Given that circumstances surrounding the pandemic have introduced additional parenting stressors, while simultaneously reducing resources (e.g., social support), it is likely that burnout plays a role in some parents’ experiences during COVID-19. This study examines both risks and resources that may contribute to parental burnout, including COVID-19 specific factors.

A survey assessing parents’ experiences since the start of the pandemic was administered in April 2020 to 1009 parents (88.8% White, 81.9% married) of children 0-12 years old (M=2.1 children, SD=1.0). Most parents reported annual income more than $50,000 per year (78.5%), but 20.8% of families lived at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. The survey included measures of parenting resources such as self-compassion, number of positive coping behaviors, and frequency of communication with family and friends. Parenting risks included parenting perfectionism and endorsement of intensive parenting ideologies, or beliefs around child-centric and time intensive parenting. We also assessed COVID-19 specific factors, including concerns and worries about COVID-19 and the extent to which parents felt that COVID-19 had negatively impacted their psychological health.

Results from linear regressions revealed that all three parenting resources were significantly associated with less parental burnout. Of the risks included in the model, parenting perfectionism was associated with higher levels of parental burnout, but intensive parenting beliefs was not. Together, these risks and resources accounted for 23.9% of the variance in parental burnout. A second step revealed that COVID-19 specific risks explained an additional 9.6% of variance. Specifically, COVID-19 psychological impacts were associated with parental burnout but concerns and worries about COVID-19 were not. Analysis of relative importance indicated that COVID-19 psychological impacts was the strongest predictor of parental burnout included in the model. See Table 1 for regression results.

Together, these results support the resource and risk theory of parental burnout, suggesting that both are related to experiences of parental burnout during COVID-19. Controlling for other parenting risks and resources, the extent to which parents felt that COVID-19 had negatively impacted their psychological health emerged as the strongest predictor of parental burnout. During the COVID-19 crisis, providing support for parents’ mental health may be critical to mitigating parental burnout, and in turn negative impacts on family well-being. One avenue for increasing parents’ resources may be interventions focused on teaching parents skills around self-compassion and self-care.

Authors

• Margaret L. Kerr, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Tuyen Huynh, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jiwon Yoon, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nadia Al Nassar, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author