Moïra Mikolajczak

Catholic University of Louvain | UCLouvain · Psychological Sciences Research Institute

Parental burnout is a specific syndrome resulting from enduring exposure to chronic parenting stress. It encompasses three dimensions: an overwhelming exhaustion related to one's parental role, an emotional distancing from one's children and a sense of ineffectiveness in one's parental role. This study aims to facilitate further identification of t...

Parenting can be wonderful. However, it also can be stressful, and when parents lack the resources needed to handle stressors related to parenting, they may develop parental burnout. This condition is characterized by an overwhelming exhaustion related to one’s parental role, an emotional distancing from one’s children, and a sense of parental inef...

High levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children. It is not yet clear, however, whether parental burnout varies by culture, and if so, why it might do so. In this study, we examined the prevalence of parental burnout in 42 countries (17,409 parents; 71...

This article lifts the veil on an existing but long taboo phenomenon: Parental burnout (PB), an exhaustion syndrome related to the parenting role. PB is caused by a perceived gap between parenting resources and demands, and it has a host of serious consequences for parents and their children.

Evidence of gender differences in parental burnout has been replicated in several studies and in several cultures, showing a higher level of parental burnout in mothers but a greater sensitivity of fathers to this serious condition. However, the reasons for these differences have never been tested empirically. In this study, we tested whether mothe...

Objective The aim of the current preregistered cross‐sectional study was to examine whether in parents with high anxious (characterized with a negative model of self), dismissing (characterized with a negative model of others), and fearful attachment styles (characterized with a negative model of self and of others), the link between parental burno...

Background: Parental burnout's (PB) literature has blossomed, showing that PB is a major predictor in child maltreatment. But it is unclear at what PB stage parents become violent. Methods: 1466 parents answered a pre-registered three-wave longitudinal survey. Results: PB seems to start with exhaustion, which catalyzes the development of all other...

Despite its significant growth over the past fifteen years, research on parental burnout is just beginning to explore the relationships of the syndrome with child behavior. Previous research with adolescents has shown the existence of associations between parental burnout and internalizing and externalizing behaviors in the offspring. The current s...

Mindfulness- and self-compassion-based programs have been shown to reduce parental stress, and levels of mindfulness and self-compassion have been shown to be negatively related to parental burnout (PB) factors. Based on these results, the present study aimed to test the efficacy of an 8-week mindfulness and compassion-based group approach (MCA) (n...

Emotion Regulation and Parenting provides a state-of-the-art account of research conducted on emotion regulation in parenting. After describing the conceptual foundations of parenthood and emotion regulation, the book reviews the influence of parents' emotion regulation on parenting, how and to what extent emotion regulation influences child develo...

Emotion Regulation and Parenting provides a state-of-the-art account of research conducted on emotion regulation in parenting. After describing the conceptual foundations of parenthood and emotion regulation, the book reviews the influence of parents' emotion regulation on parenting, how and to what extent emotion regulation influences child develo...

Emotion Regulation and Parenting provides a state-of-the-art account of research conducted on emotion regulation in parenting. After describing the conceptual foundations of parenthood and emotion regulation, the book reviews the influence of parents' emotion regulation on parenting, how and to what extent emotion regulation influences child develo...

Background: Past research has shown that perfectionistic strivings (PS) and perfectionistic concerns (PC) in the parenting domain are associated with an increase in parental burnout (PB), and that PB causally increases violence towards one's offspring. One may therefore wonder whether parenting perfectionism may ironically increase violence toward...

Parenthood is one of the most important social roles, but the consequences of becoming a parent are not always as expected. It is estimated that in developed countries, up to 5%–14% of parents regret their decision to have children and if they could turn back time, they would choose childlessness. While such a situation can have serious consequence...

Parental burnout is a severe disorder resulting from the exposure to chronic stress in the parental role, that can translate into neglectful and violent parental behaviors towards the offspring. This study (N = 1003 parents) aims to examine the relative weight of parental burnout, job burnout, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, borderline pe...

As it often applies to other mental conditions, one may posit that cognitive appraisals might be causal in the onset and maintenance of parental burnout. Recent studies have indeed highlighted that negative cognitive appraisals are positively associated with parental burnout. Howbeit, none of these studies being experimental in design, it has—thus...

Although early work on parental burnout in the 1980s did not link parental burnout to specific parenting situations, the idea that parents affected by specific vulnerability factors were particularly at risk of burnout quickly emerged. Based on the etiological model of parental burnout (i.e., the balance between risks and resources), the objective...

Parental burnout (PB) is a pervasive phenomenon. Parenting is embedded in cultural values, and previous research has shown the role of individualism in PB. In this paper, we reanalyze previously collected data to identify profiles based on the four dimensions of PB, and explore whether these profiles vary across countries’ levels of collectivistic-...

Although early work on parental burnout in the 1980s did not link parental burnout to specific parenting situations, the idea that parents affected by specific vulnerability factors were particularly at risk of burnout quickly emerged. Based on the etiological model of parental burnout (i.e., the balance between risks and resources), the objective...

Purpose The prevalence of parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children, varies dramatically across countries and is highest in Western countries characterized by high individualism. Method In this study, we examined the mediators of the relationship between individualism measured at the country level and...

Parental burnout is a growing subject of research, but thus far this research has not examined whether the features of parental burnout fluctuate over time. Moreover, parenting and parental burnout are inextricable from their family context. Therefore, a critical next step involves examining how parental burnout features temporally unfold and inter...

The study aimed to analyze the links between traits from different levels of personality organization and parental burnout. To answer the research questions, a cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,471 parents aged 19 to 45 years (mean age 35.30, SD = 5.98). The results showed that the severity of parental burnout was linked to traits ranging...

Parental burnout (PB) is a chronic stress-related condition resulting from long-lasting exposure to overwhelming parenting stress. Previous studies showing the seriousness of this condition stressed the urgent need to provide researchers and practitioners with effective assessment tools. Validated PB measures are the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI...

What is it to be “an ideal parent”? Does the answer differ across countries and social classes? To answer these questions in a way that minimizes bias and ethnocentrism, we used open-ended questions to explore ideal-parent beliefs among 8,357 mothers and 3,517 fathers from 37 countries. Leximancer Semantic Network Analysis was utilized to first det...

The aim of the present study was to develop a Ukrainian version of the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) and examine its psychometric properties among Ukrainian parents. We examined the factorial structure of the Ukrainian version of the PBA (PBA-UA) and its relation with other variables, both antecedents and consequences of PB, in a sample of 1896...

In daily life, others play a key role in helping regulate an individual’s emotions. Such emotion regulation occurs not only in face-to-face communication but also in text-based online communication. To date, much research has examined strategies for alleviating one’s own negative emotions (intrinsic emotion regulation) based on the process model of...

Parental burnout (PB), an exhaustion disorder related to parenting, is receiving increasing attention. This paper aims to take stock of the findings accumulated about PB over the last 15 years. We review and organize the literature around four questions: (1) What is parental burnout? (2) which factors are associated with an increased risk of PB? (3...

Being a parent can lead to exhaustion when risk factors offset protective factors. Recent research enabled the understanding of parental burnout antecedents among parents of typical and atypical children, but we know few about parental burnout (PB) among parents of intellectually gifted (IG) children. At the same time, several qualitative studies r...

Parental burnout is a specific syndrome resulting from enduring exposure to chronic parenting stress. It encompasses three dimensions: an overwhelming exhaustion related to one’s parental role, an emotional distancing with one’s children and a sense of ineffectiveness in one’s parental role. This study aims to facilitate further identification of a...

The Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) is a 23-item questionnaire measuring the four dimensions of parental burnout, i.e., emotional exhaustion, emotional distancing, feelings of being fed up, and contrast with the previous parental self. Parental burnout results from chronic imbalance between factors that increase parenting stress and resources tha...

Purpose The prevalence of parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children, varies dramatically across countries and is highest in Western countries characterized by high individualism. Method In this study, we examined the mediators of the relationship between individualism measured at the country level and...

Background Child maltreatment remains a major social welfare and public health issue. The relationship between SES and child maltreatment has been intensively studied. And syntheses of meta-analyses have identified low SES as one of the five major antecedents of child maltreatment. Objective The underlying mechanism that explains the association b...

Compliments are verbal acts that take place on daily basis between at least two individuals (the complimenter and the complimentee). The frequency and effects of compliments contrast with the scarcity of research devoted to this issue. So far, compliments have mainly been studied through the lens of educational psychology, with the aim of examining...

The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is a social norm embedded in the patriarchal system and is resistant to change due to its roots in the tradition of the practising communities. Despite this difficulty in change, some women succeed in changing their attitudes towards the practice. In trying to understand what makes these women change...

Parental burnout (PB) results from a chronic imbalance between risks and resources and has severe and extended consequences on the wellbeing of parents and their children. Because same-sex (SS) and different-sex (DS) families face partially different stressors (e.g., SS parents are more stigmatized) but have also partially different resources (e.g....

Parental burnout results from chronic stress in parenting, and it can be accompanied by harmful behaviors such as parental neglect and violence (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018). Network analysis examines psychological phenomena within a system of its constituents, and thus it is promising for understanding the distinct features of parental burnout and...

Les émotions sont des éléments clefs de notre bien-être tout comme elles peuvent être impliquées dans des problèmes de santé mentale importants (dépression, troubles anxieux…). Les demandes de thérapie ou d’accompagnement sont presque toujours en lien avec la présence d’émotions difficiles : tristesse, impuissance, déception, anxiété, solitude, col...

Objectives: Parental burnout is a prevalent condition that affects parents’ functioning and health. While various protective factors have been examined, little is known about their interplay. In the current study, we examined the joint effect of two protective factors against parental burnout (one external—social support, and one internal—cognitive...

Résumé Introduction La prévention de l’épuisement professionnel est un enjeu majeur pour les entreprises. Toutefois, elles n’ont pas toujours la possibilité d’avoir accès à des outils adaptés pour la mise en place de politique de prévention. Objectif Elle s’inscrit dans le projet de créer et de diffuser un questionnaire, adapté aux besoins des sa...

Parental burnout is a unique and context-specific syndrome resulting from a chronic imbalance of risks over resources in the parenting domain. The current research aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) across Spanish-speaking countries with two consecutive studies. In Study 1, w...

The concept of the “cult of the child” highlights a radical change in child representation. Having been neglected and even disrespected for centuries, children are now valued, and their interests are placed above all others. This change in views of children, reflected in changes in laws, institutions and practices, has also spread to two pillars of...

In Western countries, recent decades have witnessed a revolution toward gender equality. Inequalities have been greatly reduced in areas such as education or employment. Because inequalities lead to distress, this development has largely benefited women. One notable exception is the realm of parenting, which has remained rife with inequalities even...

Burnout, while historically considered a work-related condition, can be associated with parenting where it can have direct impacts upon parental outcomes and one's personal resources such as mental health. However, little is known about the domain-incongruent effects of burnout and thus whether parental burnout can manifest within the workplace. Th...

Counter-intuitively, sociodemographic characteristics account for a small proportion of explained variance in parental burnout. The present study conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic asks whether (i) sociodemographic characteristics are more predictive of parental burnout than usual in a situation of lockdown, (ii) situational factors, that is, t...

Burnout, while historically considered a work-related condition, can be associated with parenting where it can have direct impacts upon parental outcomes and one’s personal resources such as mental health. However, little is known about the domain-incongruent effects of burnout and thus whether parental burnout can manifest within the workplace. Th...

Impact and Implications The results of this unique international study by the International Investigation of Parental Burnout – which includes Western and non-Western countries across the globe – point to the importance of considering parental burnout as a syndrome helping to meet specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Of all the potentiall...

Depuis plus de 40 ans, le plus grand phénomène étudié dans le champ du mal-être au travail a été l’épuisement professionnel (ou burnout). Pourtant d’autres formes de souffrances existent dans le milieu professionnel. L’une d’entre elle est issu de l’ennui ressenti par les salariés. Dans les années 2000, deux consultants reprennent cette notion en u...

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted families’ lives around the world. The measures used to contain transmission have led to increased stress and put parents at increased risk for parental burnout (PB). The aim of the current study was to examine the association between COVID-related parental stress and PB, and to test whether emotion regulation (ER)...

The goal of this research was to investigate the developmental process of parental burnout by testing whether there were systematic prospective relations between the dimensions of parental burnout as measured with the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI). We investigated this question in two cross-lagged three-wave longitudinal studies with French- and...

Parental burnout results from chronic stress in parenting, and it can be accompanied by harmful behaviors such as parental neglect and violence. Network analysis examines psychological phenomena within a system of its constituents, and thus it is promising for understanding the distinct features of parental burnout and behaviors related to it. Rece...

Since parental burnout can have detrimental consequences for parents, couples, and children, easy-to-use, reliable, and valid practical tools for the early detection of parental burnout are required. We developed and validated a brief scale to identify burned-out parents and parents at burnout risk. In Study 1, we developed the 5-item Brief Parenta...

The goal of the present paper was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to operation-alize the balance between job demands and resources in order to predict job burnout. After generating the items, we first conducted a cross-sectional study (Study 1) based on 656 participants, which provided preliminary evidence for the validity of the balance...

Positive parenting prescriptions prevailing in Western countries encourage parents to regulate their emotions and, more specifically, to show more positive emotion to their children and control negative emotions while parenting. The beneficial effect of this practice on child development has been much documented, but its possible costs for parents...

Emotional competence (EC) has been documented as one of the most influential resource to protect parents from parental burnout (PB). However, the dimensions of EC have inconsistent effects across studies: while intrapersonal EC consistently had a protective effect on PB, interpersonal EC was paradoxically documented both as a risk factor and a prot...

The aim of this study was to create and validate a scale of bore-out at work: a measure for bore-out that could be used in French-speaking workplaces. Bore-out is a recently defined phenomenon, and few studies have been conducted to evaluate it- particularly in a French context. We investigated the dimensional structure of bore-out in a sample of F...

Because research has shown systematic associations between self-discrepancies and several psychological disorders, self-discrepancy is considered as a transdiagnostic factor in psychopathology. The current research contributes to the literature by testing both cross-sectionally and longitudinally the role of self-discrepancies in parental burnout,...

Parental burnout is a growing subject of research, but thus far this research has not examined whether the features of parental burnout fluctuate over time. Moreover, parenting and parental burnout are inextricable from their family context. Therefore, a critical next step involves examining how parental burnout features temporally unfold and inter...

High levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children. It is not yet clear, however, whether parental burnout varies by culture, and if so, why it might do so. In this study, we examined the prevalence of parental burnout in 42 countries (17,409 parents; 71...

Parenting perfectionism, especially the dimension of perfectionistic concerns—preoccupation with self-criticism including concern over mistakes and doubts about own behaviors—, has been shown to be a weighty factor for parental burnout. Drawing on the Balance between Risks and Resources (BR2) theory of parental burnout, this paper examines whether...

Exposure to chronic parental stress can lead to parental burnout, a syndrome encompassing three dimensions: an overwhelming exhaustion from one’s parental role, an emotional distancing from one’s children, and a sense of parental ineffectiveness. The first goal of this study was to examine whether there were different profiles of parents based on t...

Background: The use of network analyses in psychology has increasingly gained traction in the last few years. A network perspective views psychological constructs as dynamic systems of interacting elements. Objective: We present the first study to apply network analyses to examine how the hallmark features of parental burnout — i.e., exhaustion re...

This study‐ the first study on parental burnout in an Arabic speaking country in the Middle East‐ aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Lebanese translation of the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA‐Lebanese). The PBA‐Lebanese was administered to 200 Lebanese parents (67% mothers). The results showed parental burnout is a valid construc...

This study examined the factorial structure of the Polish version of the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA‐PL) and its relation with other variables, previously shown to be antecedents or outcomes of parental burnout. The PBA‐PL was administered to a total sample of 2,130 parents along with other instruments depending on the study. Factorial analyse...