Parental and Pandemic Burnout, Internalizing Symptoms, and Parent-Adolescent Relationships: A Network Analysis

Marcin Moroń; Łukasz Jach; Karina Atłas; Rafał Moroń

doi:10.1007/s10862-023-10036-w

Parental and Pandemic Burnout, Internalizing Symptoms, and Parent-Adolescent Relationships: A Network Analysis

J Psychopathol Behav Assess. 2023;45(2):428-443. doi: 10.1007/s10862-023-10036-w. Epub 2023 Mar 14.

Authors

Marcin Moroń¹, Łukasz Jach¹, Karina Atłas¹, Rafał Moroń²

Affiliations

¹ 53 Grażyńskiego Street, Katowice, 43-126 Poland Institute of Psychology, University of Silesia in Katowice.
² Primary School, No. 14 Wisława Szymborska in Rybnik, Rybnik, Poland.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and preventive measures undertaken by many governments have had a significant impact on family relationships, which could result in worsened parenting. In our study, we used network analysis to examine the dynamic system of parental and pandemic burnout, depression, anxiety, and three dimensions of relationship with an adolescent: connectedness, shared activities, and hostility. Parents (N = 374; M_age = 42.9) of at least one child at the age of adolescence completed an online survey. The central symptoms in the network were parental emotional exhaustion and parental anxiety. Parental emotional exhaustion correlated negatively with activities shared with the adolescent, but positively with hostility. Anxiety correlated positively with parental emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion and anxiety were the strongest bridge symptoms between parental burnout, internalizing symptoms, and parenting. Our results suggest that psychological interventions supporting parent-adolescent relationships should address primarily parental emotional exhaustion and anxiety.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10862-023-10036-w.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Network analysis; Parent-adolescent relationships; Parental burnout.

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