Protective variables for parental burnout: a qualitative-quantitative investigation

• Grant number: 23/17461-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Social Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Joan Barham
• Grantee: Julia Dallasta Pedroso
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Parental burnout is a condition of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion that can affect fathers and mothers due to chronic high stress related to parental responsibilities. The exact causes of parental burnout are not yet fully understood, but factors such as low socio-emotional skills, low social support and conflicts in the co-parenting relationship seem to be related to the development of this condition. Psychotherapeutic interventions have shown potential to reduce the symptoms of the condition, and possibly programs that promote and strengthen parenting and coparenting skills can act as a protective factor for parents' mental health. The aim of this project is to obtain evidence on the relationship between interpersonal parenting, coparenting and marital skills and parental burnout symptoms, as well as the long-term effects of a program to strengthen the coparenting relationship as a way of reducing the development of parental burnout symptoms. To this end, 10 couples who have already participated in an intervention program and 10 couples who have not participated will be recruited. They will complete instruments to assess the use of educational parenting social skills, coparenting skills and marital social skills, as well as answering questions in a brief semi-structured interview. The data from this collection will be analyzed using statistical analysis (to verify differences between the scores for the two groups of couples, as well as the relationship between the use of educational, coparental and conjugal parental social skills with parental burnout symptoms) and content analysis, respectively.