Search Results (75)

Parental burnout, characterized by emotional exhaustion and a sense of detachment, is a significant challenge for families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While traditional research often focuses on socioeconomic status, this study examines how physical living conditions and household characteristics influence burnout levels in the Turkish context. A relational survey model was conducted with 131 parents of children with ASD. Data were collected via online surveys using a Sociodemographic Data Form and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which was adapted to the parenting role. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to identify variables predicting total burnout scores. The analysis revealed that most sociodemographic variables, including income, education level, and parental age, did not significantly predict burnout. However, the “number of rooms in the house” was identified as the only statistically significant predictor (p = 0.033). Specifically, as the number of rooms increased, the total burnout scores of parents significantly decreased. The findings suggest that physical living space serves as a critical “spatial resource” and a protective factor against parental burnout. For families of children with ASD, having a private area for self-regulation is more decisive for mental health than economic status alone. Future support strategies should prioritize improving the quality of life through spatial arrangements and respite services. Full article

While much of the current research on early specialization focuses on physical outcomes, training models, and policy implications, little is known about how athletes themselves make sense of their developmental experiences. This study aims to examine how ice hockey players perceive and experience early specialization within competitive youth sport contexts, with the goal of generating a nuanced, inductively grounded understanding of athlete development from the athlete perspective. A qualitative study design was used where eight current and former ice hockey players with experience of early specialization participated. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using qualitative conventional content analysis. Three overarching themes emerged, highlighting experiences of loneliness, pressure, and elevated expectations within elite sport environments, alongside the vital importance of support networks and team community: ‘Thrown into adulthood with premature expectations’, ‘Balancing Support and Pressure in Athlete Development’, and ‘The Struggle Between Dream and Reality’. Players described feeling pressured, isolated, and prematurely professionalized, often at the expense of personal development. The findings highlight the psychological and structural challenges of early specialization in elite ice hockey. While support systems played a crucial role, they also contributed to performance anxiety and external expectations. These insights underscore the need for youth sport systems that prioritize long-term athlete well-being over short-term success. Full article

Systemwide Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) promotes a host of academic and behavioral benefits for K-12 students. Yet, many schools face barriers to SEL implementation. Through a research–practice partnership, this study provides insights into facilitators of and challenges to systemwide SEL implementation. We collected 652 field notes of SEL in action across twelve schools in the Northeast and Western regions of the United States between December 2022 and May 2024. All field notes were analyzed with Dedoose using thematic inductive coding. Key facilitators of systemwide SEL include prioritization/support from leadership, professional development for educators, integration into students’ daily experiences, and engagement with parents/caregivers and the community. Key challenges to systemwide SEL involve leadership ambiguity, educator burnout, and student disengagement. Implications for optimizing SEL implementation in educational practice and policy are discussed. Full article

This study investigated psychological burnout among special education teachers in Qatar and analyzed its associations with professional and social factors. Employing a descriptive–correlational design, 204 special education teachers (M age = 42.73 years, SD = 10.23) completed two instruments: an 18-item burnout scale measuring emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, and a 20-item scale assessing administrative and institutional stressors, parent- and community-related pressures, and work–life balance difficulties. Descriptive statistics revealed a moderate overall level of burnout, with emotional exhaustion as the most prominent dimension, followed by reduced personal accomplishment; depersonalization was comparatively low. Professional and social factors were also rated at a moderate level, with work–life balance difficulties exhibiting the highest mean. Multivariate analyses identified significant differences in burnout dimensions by gender, whereas age, years of experience, educational qualification, and workplace setting were not significantly associated with burnout. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the three factors collectively explained a substantial proportion of variance in burnout, with work–life balance difficulties demonstrating the strongest unique association, followed by administrative and institutional stressors and parent- and community-related pressures. These results highlight the need for organizational and relational supports, as well as policies that protect teacher time and wellbeing, to sustain special education services in Qatar. Full article

Background: Contemporary models of parental burnout conceptualize it as an interplay between parental demands and insufficient resources. However, research and current models remain sparse in their understanding of these demands and dynamics within the context of managing a child’s sleep wellness and related problems, which constitute a fundamental aspect in early parenting. The present work addresses this gap by examining this issue comprehensively. Methods: 2291 mother–child dyads were recruited from two sources: a random population sample (n = 1409) and a clinical sample (n = 882) of mothers seeking consultation for their child’s sleep issues (0–5 years old). Mothers completed an extensive panel of validated instruments and survey questions covering burnout and psychopathologies, sleep parameters, psychosocial, organizational, and demographic variables. Inferential analyses, regression modeling, cluster analysis, and mediation models were applied. Results: Two distinct profiles of parental burnout emerged: one associated with child sleep disturbances and the other with general parenting stress. The strongest-weighted risk factors pertained to maladaptive beliefs and perceptions (e.g., shame, “I am a bad parent”, “My child cries because I do not meet his needs”), as well as additive stressors such as interparental tension and daytime child behavioral problems. The strongest protective factors involved resources that reduced parental demands or facilitated recovery, including couple satisfaction, a consistent bedtime routine, greater capacity to take breaks (e.g., additional caregivers, father nighttime involvement, parental cohabitation, and child screen time). Conclusion: The identification of two distinct burnout profiles highlights the importance of incorporating, or placing more centrally, the management of young children’s insomnia in contemporary theoretical models of parental burnout. This research highlights the need for interventions on healthy self-beliefs and perceptions, effective daytime parenting strategies, positive couple dynamics, consistency in bedtime routines, and equitable distribution of caregiving responsibilities between parents to reduce the risk of parental burnout. Full article

Early adolescent sport dropout is commonly explained through individual psychological factors such as declining motivation, burnout, or identity conflict. While valuable, these accounts often assume parental logistical and financial support as a stable background condition. This conceptual article introduces the Utilitarian Shift as a novel, family-level structural mechanism that helps explain why sport dropout peaks during early adolescence. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory, sociological perspectives on family investment, and developmental psychology, the framework conceptualizes dropout as emerging from a developmentally timed recalibration of parental investment. During childhood, parental support is largely sustained by custodial and broad developmental incentives; however, as adolescents gain functional independence and perceived developmental returns decline, continued investment becomes conditional rather than assumed. At the same time, sport system demands intensify through specialization pressures, rising costs, and selection mechanisms such as the Relative Age Effect. The convergence of declining perceived returns and escalating costs prompts rational parental withdrawal of logistical and financial support, thereby dismantling the material infrastructure required for sustained participation. Importantly, this withdrawal precedes and reshapes adolescents’ capacity to enact motivation, agency, and resilience, rather than merely responding to disengagement. The article situates early adolescent sport dropout as a relational and structurally mediated process, shifting analytic attention away from athlete-centered deficit models toward dynamic parental decision-making within marketized youth sport systems. Practically, the framework highlights the need for sport organizations and governing bodies to redesign participation pathways and value propositions that sustain parental engagement during early adolescence, even in the absence of elite performance trajectories. Full article

The present study examines the relationships between transformational leadership styles (i.e., transformational coaching and transformational parenting), basic psychological needs (BPN) satisfaction and thwarting, and burnout within sports and family settings among a sample of adolescents. Participants were 540 basketball players (184 girls) between 11 and 18 years old, representing five clubs in the province of Valencia, Spain. A non-experimental cross-sectional study was conducted, and structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among the study variables. Both coaches’ and mothers’ transformational leadership styles were positively associated with BPN satisfaction and negatively associated with BPN thwarting. Fathers’ transformational parenting was negatively associated with BPN thwarting. BPN satisfaction and thwarting emerge as an indirect mediator between mothers’ transformational parenting and burnout. A direct association of transformational coaching with players’ burnout was supported, as well as being indirectly associated through BPN thwarting. This study suggests that BPN satisfaction and thwarting are the main mechanisms for understanding the development of player burnout. Coaches, within sports settings, and mothers in the family setting, emerge as fundamental figures for understanding the mechanisms of the relationships between transformational coaching and parenting with regard to player burnout. Full article

Background: Parental burnout is a form of psychological exhaustion resulting from prolonged parental stress. It is characterized by emotional distancing from one’s children, emotional fatigue, a sense of being overwhelmed, and feelings of failure in the parental role. The aim of our study was to explore the relationships between coping styles, sociodemographic variables, and parental burnout in a Hungarian sample. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 221 parents raising children up to the age of ten. The instruments included the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ). Results: Our findings indicate that support-seeking coping was associated with lower levels of burnout, whereas emotion-focused coping and poorer self-rated health were related to higher burnout scores (p < 0.05). Postpartum depressive symptoms showed a strong association with emotional exhaustion and parental contrast, suggesting shared psychological mechanisms underlying these phenomena (p < 0.05). Sociodemographic factors were not found to be significant predictors (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Based on our results, parental burnout appears to be primarily psychological in nature, and the development of emotional resilience—particularly through mindfulness-based and cognitive-behavioral interventions—may play a key role in its prevention and treatment. Full article

Religiosity has been proposed as a meta-resource that may help parents endure chronic caregiving demands by anchoring parenting in meaning, values, and a sense of purpose—an idea compatible with Frankl’s view that suffering becomes more bearable when it is intelligible and oriented toward a “why.” In a cross-sectional sample of Polish parents (N = 339), we examined whether religiosity related to parental burnout through existential resources (presence and searching for meaning in life) and family-level resources (family functioning) while accounting for basic sociodemographic factors. The zero-order religiosity–burnout association was small and not statistically significant. Yet an indirect-only pattern emerged: higher religiosity was linked to lower parental burnout primarily through higher presence of meaning in life and better family functioning, including a small but reliable serial connection between these two resources. By contrast, global perceived support and generic searching for meaning did not add explanatory value once core resources were considered. In meaning-centred terms, religious faith may operate less as a direct “shield” against burnout and more as a pathway to sustaining everyday family practices and a stable sense of meaning that helps parents carry long-term demands. In other words, religiosity appears linked to lower burnout mainly indirectly via meaning and everyday family functioning, rather than through a sizable direct association. Full article

Background: Parenting is increasingly recognized as a highly demanding and stressful role that, in the absence of sufficient resources, may lead to parental burnout (PB). This risk may be particularly pronounced in the Russian context, where limited access to childcare for children under three and reduced extended family support coincide with strong social expectations of intensive parenting. Although PB and maternal depression frequently co-occur, it remains unclear whether PB exerts a unique influence on child development, especially during toddlerhood. The present study examined the association between PB and behavioral problems in children aged 1.5 to 4 years while controlling for maternal depression assessed both during the first year postpartum and concurrently with PB. Methods: Using a longitudinal design, maternal mental health was assessed within the first 12 months postpartum (Stage 1) and again at follow-up (Stage 2), on average 2.24 years later, in 419 Russian mother–child dyads. Mothers completed measures of postpartum depression (PPD) (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale), current depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II), and PB (Parental Burnout Inventory). Child emotional and behavioral problems were assessed at Stage 2 using the Russian version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/1½–5). Results: Mothers of children with borderline/clinically significant internalizing, externalizing, and total problems had significantly higher PB, PPD, and present maternal depressive symptoms, although the effect sizes were small. PB was strongly associated with all domains of child behavioral problems, also after correction for both postpartum and present depressive symptoms, as well as for other important covariates. Higher maternal PB symptoms further increased the odds of children having borderline/clinically significant internalizing and externalizing problems, although those effects were not independent of maternal depression. In turn, neither postpartum nor present maternal depressive symptoms were associated with any of the child behavioral problems domains. Conclusions: PB represents a distinct and clinically relevant risk factor for emotional and behavioral problems in toddlers, beyond the effects of maternal postpartum or present depression, in a context characterized by high caregiving demands and limited institutional support. These findings highlight an urgent need for programs aimed at identifying and supporting families in which parents experience high levels of exhaustion, regardless of whether they meet the criteria for other diagnosable mental health disorders. Addressing PB during toddlerhood may be critical for protecting both parental well-being and early child development. Full article

Sport persistence is a key factor in maintaining a sporting career and preventing dropout from sport. Among psychological and social factors, social support plays a prominent role as a protective factor that strengthens self-esteem and reduces the risk of burnout, as does the perfectionist climate, which is motivating in a supportive environment but places psychological burdens on athletes in its maladaptive forms. The research aimed to explore the extent to which the sport persistence of young athletes can be explained by different sources of social support (parental, teacher, peer) and the dimensions of the perfectionist climate (expectations, criticism, control, conditional respect, anxiety), as well as the role played by gender. We conducted a cross-sectional, quantitative study involving 1105 young people aged 14–25 who regularly participate in sports. We used validated questionnaires to measure sports persistence, social support and perfectionist climate. We used regression and mediation models to analyse the data. According to the analyses, parental and teacher support contributed to increased sport persistence, while peer support had no significant effect. Among the dimensions of the perfectionist climate, expectations were positively related to persistence, while criticism was negatively related. Gender also indirectly influenced sports persistence, with its effect partly mediated by social support and the perfectionist climate. The results indicate that parental and teacher support, along with an emphasis on healthy expectations, are vital for strengthening sports persistence. In contrast, a critical, controlling climate was associated with lower persistence among female athletes in the present sample. Full article

Parentification is the process in which children assume caregiving roles typically designated for parents. Prior research suggests that adults with a history of childhood parentification tend to find themselves in relationships where they continue their caregiving roles, leading to emotional exhaustion and couple burnout. This study examines the associations among childhood parentification, partner parentification, and couple burnout, and investigates the mediating role of partner parentification in the relationship between childhood parentification and couple burnout. A multi-method research design, with a quantitative sample comprising 283 married individuals aged 18–65 who had been married for at least 6 months, was used. The quantitative measures were the Partner Parentification scale, Parentified Child Scale-Adult Version (PCS-A), and Couple Burnout Measure-Short Form (CBMS). Within the scope of the quantitative study, the path analyses revealed that partner parentification partially mediated the association between childhood parentification and couple burnout. Qualitative data were collected to assess partner parentification experiences, and the deductive content analysis results revealed aspects similar to those of childhood parentification. The findings suggest that childhood parentification shares similar aspects with partner parentification, and individuals who were parentified by their parents were eager to be parentified by their spouses, experiencing couple burnout in their relationships. Full article

Background: Parental burnout is a state of extreme exhaustion that is detrimental to family life. There is some evidence, albeit limited, that children of exhausted parents are at risk of neglect or abuse. The children’s lived experience remains an underinvestigated issue. This qualitative and participatory study aimed to explore children’s and adolescents’ perceptions and experience of parental burnout, as well as the resources they identify as available to assist them. Methods: We interviewed 24 children of exhausted parents, including children typically developing (n = 17), children with illness/disability (n = 3), and children with learning/behavioral difficulties (n = 4). We used interactive data collection tools, adapted to the participants’ age. The interviews were followed by a participatory validation seminar. Results: We evidenced a high emotional burden experienced by children exposed to parental burden. The children conveyed feeling insecure about what happens, perceiving a mismatch between their own needs and those of their parents, and being afraid both of and for their parents. Conclusions: Our results call for an increased recognition of parental burnout as not only a personal or family problem, but a possibly important societal and public health concern, with implications for child prevention and health promotion. Full article

University students worldwide experience considerable health challenges. We examined health inequalities in a nationwide, gender-balanced sample of 1105 German students, considering negative (stress, depression, burnout) and positive health outcomes (self-rated health [SRH], well-being) alongside vertical (subjective social status [SSS], parental academic background) and horizontal (gender) determinants. Analyses used bivariate statistics, multivariate regressions, and interaction terms. Higher SSS was associated with better SRH (β = 0.322) and well-being (β = 0.355), and lower stress (β = −0.154), depression (β = −0.127), and burnout (β = −0.219). First-generation students reported highly significant poorer SRH and well-being than students with one (β = 0.114; β = 0.112) or two academic parents (β = 0.162; β = 0.192). Students with two academic parents showed lower stress (β = −0.087, p = 0.007) and burnout (β = −0.099, p = 0.002). Interactions suggest a protective effect of higher SSS on depression (β = −0.219, p = 0.026) and burnout (β = −0.264, p = 0.006), more pronounced among male students, who additionally benefited more from an academic household regarding SRH (β = 0.100, p = 0.044). These findings underscore intersectional and multifaceted inequalities among German students and the need for interventions. Full article

Background and Objectives: We examined how health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) and caregiver stress/burnout relate in terms of lesion severity. Methods: We enrolled 72 child–caregiver dyads at a tertiary centre (May 2023–April 2025). Children completed PedsQL and CDI (anxiety assessment via SCARED-C was descriptive and not modelled in APIM); caregivers completed SF-36, PSS-10, and the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA). Lesion severity (mild n = 22, moderate n = 34, severe n = 16) and LVEF were abstracted. Pearson correlations and actor–partner interdependence models (APIM) estimated within- and cross-partner effects. Results: Child PedsQL decreased with severity (mild 81.2 ± 7.4; moderate 70.9 ± 8.1; severe 63.3 ± 5.1; p < 0.001); caregiver SF-36 Mental Component Summary (MCS) showed a parallel gradient (66.8 ± 9.2; 59.7 ± 8.5; 54.1 ± 7.9; p < 0.001). Child HRQoL correlated with caregiver MCS (r = 0.46) and inversely with caregiver stress (PSS r = −0.42) and burnout (PBA r = −0.39). In APIM, caregiver stress predicted a caregiver’s own MCS (actor β = −0.38, p < 0.001) and the child’s PedsQL (partner β = −0.26, p = 0.002); higher child depressive symptoms predicted lower caregiver MCS (partner β = −0.22, p = 0.006). Each step up in lesion severity independently reduced child PedsQL by 7.9 points and caregiver MCS by 5.3 points (both p < 0.001). Dyads with unscheduled hospitalizations (n = 43) had poorer scores in both members. Conclusions: Psychological wellbeing in CHD dyads is strongly interdependent; caregiver stress relates to lower child HRQoL and child mood to caregiver mental health. Brief dyadic screening (PedsQL/SF-36 with PSS/CDI) and integrated, family-focused interventions may better target high-risk families, particularly with severe lesions or recent hospitalizations. Full article