Abstract
In society and its mass media, adolescence is typically portrayed as a disruptive and rebellious stage of life (“Storm and Stress”). Previous research suggests that the parental adherence to these negative Storm and Stress beliefs about adolescence are persistent and predict subsequent “Storm and Stress” behaviours among their adolescent children. However, the way these beliefs may impact parenting and the experience of being a parent remains unclear and understudied. This study examined associations between parents’ Storm and Stress beliefs about adolescence and parental burnout as well as explored the potential mediating role of parental overprotection in this association. Using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Partial Mediation Model, we examined these associations in 146 mother-father dyads (<em>N</em> = 292 parents) of adolescents. Results indicated that mothers and fathers who adhered more strongly to Storm and Stress beliefs about adolescence were more likely to exhibit higher levels of parental burnout. These associations were partially mediated by parental overprotection for both mothers and fathers. The strength of these pathways were found to be similar for both mothers and fathers and no partner effect was observed. These results suggest that countering negative beliefs about adolescence may be beneficial for the quality of parenting and the experience of being a parent.
Highlights
The old saying “little children, little problems; big children, big problems” is very popular among parents
We argue that parental burnout may be related to parents’ negative views of adolescence (‘Storm and Stress beliefs) via parental overprotection
We aim to test whether parental Storm and Stress beliefs are positively associated with parents’ tendency to engage in overprotective parenting during adolescence, which in turn is expected to relate to more parental burnout
Summary
The old saying “little children, little problems; big children, big problems” is very popular among parents. In a somewhat older nationwide study on parenting in the Netherlands, Rispens, Hermanns and Meeus (1996) documented for example that parents see adolescence as the hardest part of their parenting job and the most challenging period of child-rearing. These negative parental representations are often fuelled, from their inception, by society, in particular via mass media that tend to portray teenagers in an unbalanced negative way (Epstein, 2007; Förnas & Bolin, 1995; Wells, 2004). When parents are in a state of intense exhaustion and lack the resources to deal with parenting stress, a risk of parental burnout even exists (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018; Mikolajczak, et al, 2019)
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