Parental Burnout Across the Globe During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all societies worldwide. The heightened levels of stress that accompanied the crisis were also expected to affect parenting in many families. Since it is known that high levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to a condition that has severe consequences for health and well-being, we examined whether the prevalence of parental burnout in 26 countries (9,923 parents; 75% mothers; mean age 40) increased during COVID-19 compared to few years before the pandemic. In most (but not all) countries, analyses showed a significant increase in the prevalence of parental burnout during the pandemic. The results further revealed that next to governmental measures (e.g., number of days locked down, homeschooling) and factors at the individual and family level (e.g., gender, number of children), parents in less (vs. more) indulgent countries suffered more from parental burnout. The findings suggest that stricter norms regarding their parenting roles and duties in general and during the pandemic in particular might have increased their levels of parental burnout.

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 potentially modifiable influences affecting individuals’ healthy lives and well-being across the life course (i.e., SDG 3), positive parenting in the early years has the potential to become a common pathway – by fostering social and emotional skills – to promote a range of healthy outcomes in both children and adults. Acknowledging that parenting can be extremely demanding and exhausting for parents who are confronted with specific individual-, family-, and country-level characteristics may give rise to develop programs how to encourage parents to minimize exhaustion in their parenting role and how to adopt nonviolent ways of disciplining children (SDG 16.2). The various individual and cultural factors as well as COVID-19 factors that have been found related to prevalence rates of parental burnout give indications with factors need to be addressed to promote health and well-being of parents and children (SDG 3) and to diminish or prevent violence against children (SDG 16.2).