Chinese mothers’ parental burnout and adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems: The mediating role of maternal hostility.

Abstract

Parental burnout is a state that parents feel exhausted in their parental role. Although past research has examined concurrent correlates of parental burnout, the impacts of parental burnout on adolescent development over time remain largely unknown. The current study explored the indirect mechanisms linking mothers' parental burnout to adolescents' later internalizing and externalizing problems through maternal hostility among Chinese families. Using a sample of 606 adolescents (51.5% boys; M age = 12.89 years old) and their mothers (M age = 38.50 years old), this three-wave longitudinal study showed that mothers' parental burnout was predictive of adolescents' perceptions of their mothers' parental hostility over time, which were in turn related to adolescents' later internalizing and externalizing problems. Moreover, mothers' parental burnout was directly related to adolescents' later externalizing problems. Taken together, parental burnout played a role in adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems over time through increased parental hostility. These findings underscore the importance of parental burnout on parenting behavior and adolescent adjustment.

The Mechanisms of Parental Burnout Affecting Adolescents’ Problem Behavior

“…This study found that parental psychological aggression plays a mediating role between parental burnout and adolescents’ problem behavior. This finding is consistent with previous studies that found that parental burnout leads to a range of negative parenting behaviors, such as reduced warmth and support for children [ 3 ], increased neglect and violence [ 4 ], hostility [ 12 ], aggression [ 18 ], and increased negative treatment of children, such as denial and rejection [ 4 ]. This study shows that parental burnout can also increase parents’ psychological aggression toward adolescents.…”

“…Children are the subjects of parenting behavior, and burned-out parents’ parenting behavior ultimately affects the healthy development of their children. However, only a few studies have examined the direct effects of parental burnout on children’s development [ 12 ]. Therefore, based on family system theory, this study used paired data to build a moderated mediation model to explore the influence and underlying mechanism of parental burnout on adolescents’ problem behavior.…”

“…This study shows that parental burnout can also increase parents’ psychological aggression toward adolescents. Such negative parenting behaviors may be due to parents’ poor coping styles in the face of parenting exhaustion [ 12 ].…”

“…Further, because adolescence is a critical period in individuals’ development, where rapid development occurs, adolescents may face more internal and external contradictions and conflicts, leading to more behavioral and emotional problems [ 10 ]. To the best of our knowledge, only two studies have examined the relationship between parental burnout and adolescents’ problem behavior, in which parental burnout influenced adolescents’ problem behavior directly [ 11 ], or through maternal hostility [ 12 ]. The underlying mechanisms between the two variables need further exploration.…”

“…Considering that parenting stress is a key antecedent of parental burnout [ 3 , 21 ], the relationship between parental burnout and adolescents’ problem behavior may be stronger than the current observed relationship between parenting stress and adolescents’ adjustment. Prior studies have shown that maternal parental burnout can predict later increases in adolescents’ internalization of problem behaviors [ 12 ]. A series of cross-sectional studies also suggested a relationship between parental burnout and problem behaviors.…”