Parental and job burnout in a Chinese sample

Abstract

Recently, parental burnout has received considerable attention. However, to what extent can parental burnout be distinguished from job burnout in general? Furthermore, what is the direction of the relationship between parental and job burnout? These questions remain to be explored. The present study sought to determine the relationship between parental and job burnout, examining the effects on fathers and the mothers sample separately. Study 1 aimed to provide further evidence of the distinction between parental and job burnout. In total, 597 students, 458 fathers, and 531 mothers took part in our survey. Furthermore, both parental and job burnout could positively predict their own depression (βfather = 0.27, p < 0.01; βmother = 0.35, p < 0.01). Parental burnout could significantly predict parenting-related variables (e.g., children’s anxiety) (βfather = 0.23, p < 0.01; βmother = 0.13, p < 0.01), whereas job burnout could significantly predict job-related variables (e.g., job satisfaction) (βfather = −0.27, p < 0.01; βmother = −0.28, p < 0.01). These results support the distinction between parental and job burnout. In Study 2, a three-wave longitudinal design and a cross-lag model was established to infer the direction of the relationship. In total, 109 fathers and 144 mothers completed all questionnaires. The results showed that the previous parental burnout had a significant predictive effect on later job burnout consistently, whereas the previous job burnout did not show significant predictive effect on later parental burnout. The implications and necessary future research are also discussed.