PARENTAL BURNOUT AND MENTAL HEALTH OF MARRIED INDIVIDUALS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has been context altering as it has and still alters the dimensions of social, economic, and intimate lives of people. With reference to this, parenting; an already tough task, in the disarray caused by COVID-19 pandemic, has elevated parental burnout and declined mental health of married individuals. In the present context, it is imperative to understand how parents are coping and managing their lives. The present research aimed to examine prevalence of both parental burnout and mental health and how parental burnout affects married individuals. For the present research, married individuals (N = 350) within an age range of 25 to 65 years (M = 35.42, SD = 9.29) were approached from different cities of Pakistan through purposive sampling. Parental burnout and mental health were measured using Parental Burn Out Scale (Roskam et al., 2018) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Severe parental burnout symptoms prevailed in .6% parents. Females had moderate symptoms of declined mental health as compared to males (11.1 % depressed, 25.4 % anxiety, and 7.9 % stress). The findings indicated significant positive association between parental burnout and mental health, indicating declined mental health among married individuals. The prevalence of parental burnout and declined mental health among parents indicated the gravity of the situation for developing countries where most of the mothers are stay-at-home spouses and have limited resources to look after their mental health. The findings of the present study could provide a baseline for clinicians to design interventions for parents to cope with stress of parenting as well as taking care of their mental health not only in the on-going pandemic but in general stressful times.1