On the Temporal Nature of Parental Burnout: Development of an Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) Tool to Assess Parental Burnout and Its Related Ever-Changing Family Context

Abstract

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 interact with the ever-changing family environment. To do so, we developed an 11-item experience sampling methodology (ESM) tool to measure self-reported parental burnout features (specifically emotional exhaustion, emotional distance, and feeling fed up), as well as partner relationship, children’s behavior, behavior toward children, social support, and perceived resources. To ensure items were clearly phrased and covered the entirety of their construct via statements applicable to most parents daily, we sought feedback from parents (from the general population) and parental burnout experts. We also conducted two preliminary rounds of ESM data collection, one over a one-week period (n = 5) and a second over a two-week period (n = 9). Participating parents found the ESM survey easy to answer and not burdensome. Their results indicated sufficient within-person variability for all ESM items, supporting that these three parental burnout features fluctuate over time. We collected the ESM data using formr, an open-source platform, and we provide open access to all materials (including a formr template, allowing free use of the assessment tool) and data: https://osf.io/s2yv5/. Finally, we discuss how assessing parental burnout over time can help usher parental burnout research and treatment forward.

Parental burnout features & their family context: A temporal network approach in mothers

“…First, a researcher conducted an introductory briefing session with each parent individually over a video call, with the experimenter explaining the overall study and demonstrating the daily diary items and software to the participant. We used formr, an opensource software, to collect data (Arslan et al, 2020); for further information, see Blanchard, Revol, et al (2022). Participants received the link to complete the demographic questionnaires, and then, the next day, the first of the 56 daily surveys started.…”

“…3 These items were conceptualized, created and piloted within the context of the experience sampling methodology (ESM) literature, which entails asking questions from one to many times a day over a long period of time. During this development period, described in detail inBlanchard, Revol, et al (2022), we decided that a frequency of once per day would be most suitable for the parents (as many parents described spending mostly the evening with their children) as well as the items themselves (which we hypothesized would vary daily). Since these items were only assessed once per day, we describe this data collection as a "daily diary," despite the items themselves being created in the context of ESM literature.…”

Parental burnout features and the family context: A temporal network approach in mothers.

“…Parents answered the last item, measuring hours spent with kids, by entering a number between 0 and 24. The exact items can be found in Table 2, and we have previously described their development procedure and psychometric properties (Blanchard, Revol, et al, 2022). 3 We reverse-scored parents' responses for emotional distance and resources.…”

An experience sampling measure of the key features of rumination

“…We therefore propose the first ESM measure dedicated to capturing the temporal nature of the five features of rumination. As argued elsewhere (Blanchard et al, 2021), developing ESM items widely departs from creating a traditional (single time-point or "trait") questionnaire and comes with its specific challenges. For instance, ESM surveys should be extremely brief, taking a maximum of two to three minutes to complete, since participants will be taking time from their daily lives over weeks or months to answer these questions (Eisele et al, 2022;Kimhy et al, 2012;Myin-Germeys et al, 2018;Varese et al, 2019).…”

“…Second, inspired by recent ESM item development research (e.g., Blanchard et al, 2021), we wanted to investigate how the ESM items performed when administered to a community sample over fourteen days. To this end, we probed whether our newly developed items yielded sufficient within-person variance (i.e., low ICCs) and whether they had good convergent validity with trait-like questionnaires assessing similar constructs (see section "ESM tool psychometric properties").…”