Abstract
Titolo: Focus on parents: antecedents, trajectories and role differences in parental burnout Parenting is a potentially life-enriching experience, though it can be complex and challenging at the same time. A long-lasting exposure to overwhelming parenting stress can indeed lead to parental burnout (PB), similarly to what happens with job burnout. While parenting stress is expected and ‘normal’, PB is a chronic exhaustion syndrome that interferes with good enough parenting practices. PB comprises emotional distancing from children, overwhelming exhaustion related to the parental role, loss of personal effectiveness, and pleasure in the parental role. The literature on PB is in its infancy, but research is moving fast towards its better understanding in terms of risk/protective factors, cross-cultural variations, consequences on children and so forth, and there is initial recognition of the construct’s clinical validity. Nevertheless, several relevant issues, such as the lack of rigorous scientific designs, the absence of an epidemiological overview of the phenomenon, no shared clinically relevant cut-offs and a paucity of Italian studies, call for joint systematic efforts to improve our knowledge on this potentially useful construct. The project, in line with the strategic emerging topics pertaining human wellbeing and health, aims to enhance our understanding of PB by investigating its construct validity, clinical utility, and epidemiology, and to address main questions as: Do fathers and mothers differ vis-à-vis PB? What is its trajectory over time? Are there sensitive periods of children’s development that may trigger PB? To achieve these goals, four RUs will be working synergically, each with their specific contributions. A large representative sample of Italian parents will be recruited from schools (all levels and all grades) thanks to the robust networks of collaborations that RUs of Bologna, Palermo and Rome already have. A second sample of parents with clinical psychopathological diagnosis will be also recruited by the Rome Unit within hospitals and clinical services. In both samples, PB will be assessed over a 1-year period with four online data collection (each 3 months apart) that will include qualitative and quantitative measures. Additional variables will be collected upon their relevance to the project’s objectives, and will refer to demographics, parental workload, and family context. A third sample of mothers of the largest Italian birth cohort (NINFEA), coordinated by the Turin RU, will contribute to the project by completing the PB-related questionnaire at several existing follow-ups (from 10 to 16 years of child age). This project will help to generate new knowledge on PB and to demonstrate if, in line with the emerging evidence coming from other cultural contexts, PB will attest its psychometric validity, clinical relevance and previously reported prevalence. This in turn will reinforce the need to develop interventions for burned-out parents and/or preventive steps for parents who are at the burnout risk.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Federica Andrei
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari"
Coordinatore:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Contributo totale di progetto: Euro (EUR) 218.541,00
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 70.949,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
30/11/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
