Abstract
So far, the conceptualization and measurement of parental burnout have been deduced from those of job burnout. As a result, it is unclear whether current measures of parental burnout constitute the best representation of the parental burnout construct/syndrome: the possibility cannot be excluded that some dimensions ought to be added, which would change the structure and definition of parental burnout. In this study, the conceptualization and measurement of parental burnout were approached using an inductive method, in which the parental burnout phenomenon was (re)constructed based solely on the testimonies of burned-out parents. Items extracted from their testimonies were presented to a sample of French-speaking and English-speaking parents (N = 901) and submitted to factor analyses. An identifiable parental burnout syndrome including four dimensions was found (exhaustion in one's parental role, contrast with previous parental self, feelings of being fed up with one's parental role and emotional distancing from one's children). The resulting instrument, the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) presents good validity. Factorial invariance across gender and languages was also found. Finally, the results of this study replicate previous findings that psychological traits of the parents, parenting factors, and family functioning account for more variance in parental burnout than sociodemographic factors.
Highlights
In their 2014 article, “Is burnout solely job-related? A critical comment,” Bianchi et al (2014) questioned the view of burnout as a work-related condition
Afterwards, we examined its convergence with the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI) and compared the two instruments’ pattern of correlations with other variables
We removed items with evident cross-loadings across three factors or more (>0.30; e.g., I feel frustrated in my role as a parent), as well as items with the highest loading on the fifth or sixth factor (e.g., I only half-listen to what my children tell me)
Summary
A critical comment,” Bianchi et al (2014) questioned the view of burnout as a work-related condition. They argued that because enduring chronic stress—the putative cause of burnout—is not limited to work, the burnout phenomenon cannot be confined to work. According to these authors, any activity that can elicit frequent and intense stress response could contribute to the development of burnout. Because parenting has been shown to be a both complex and stressful activity (Abidin, 1990; Crnic and Low, 2002; Deater-deckard, 2014) and because children give meaning to their parents’ lives (ONS-UK, 2012), parenting should be a likely candidate to produce burnout—if burnout exists outside work.
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