In Focus

Parental Burnout: Risks, Consequences, and Treatment

In Focus

Parental Burnout: Risks, Consequences, and Treatment

By Lauren Fleming, MA
Doctoral Candidate at Monclaire State University

What is parental burnout, and who may be at increased risk?

Parenting stress has become a national public health concern, with 41% of parents reporting being too stressed to function most days (American Psychological Association, 2023; Murthy, 2024). While transient periods of parenting stress are normative, some parents experience a chronic, severe, and pervasive manifestation, known as parental burnout. Parental burnout is a distinct psychological syndrome that manifests as four key symptoms: (a) physical and emotional exhaustion in the parenting role, (b) emotional distancing from one’s children, (c) limited parenting fulfillment, and (d) a contrast between previous and current parenting (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018; Mikolajczak et al., 2019; Mikolajczak et al., 2023). Although symptoms of parental burnout may overlap with other mental health concerns, such as anxiety, depression, and job burnout, the results of parenting stress are distinguished by its restricted impact in the parental sphere and unique consequences for parenting and child outcomes, such as neglectful or violent parenting (Mikolajczak et al., 2020; Sanchez-Rodriguez et al., 2019).

While prevalence rates vary across cultural contexts, research suggests that approximately 5-9% of parents in Western countries experience burnout (Roskam et al., 2021). Parental burnout can occur for parents with diverse identities (e.g., gender, sexual identities) and family characteristics (e.g., single-parenthood, children with complex care needs). However, certain demographic characteristics have demonstrated relatively stronger associations with burnout. For example, even when mothers endorse higher levels of egalitarian values or experience greater country-level gender equity, they often report higher levels of parental burnout. Such findings may be attributable to persistent gender discrepancies in the physical and mental load of childrearing and internalized gender norms (de Santis et al., 2025; Kroshus et al., 2023; Roskam & Mikolajczak, 2020; Roskam et al., 2022). Fathers, conversely, have demonstrated greater sensitivity to the negative consequences of parental burnout, such as escape and suicidal ideations (Roskam & Mikolajczak, 2020; Zhang et al., 2023), which may be explained by societal expectations that mothers are better equipped to tolerate increased childcare stress than fathers. Additionally, parents of children with complex care needs (e.g., chronic conditions, disabilities) and parents of young children have reported higher levels of burnout (Desimpelaere et al., 2023; Giraldo et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2025; Piotrowski et al., 2023).

Other demographic factors, including single parenthood and number of children, have not been associated with burnout (Le Vigouroux et al., 2022; Mikolajczak et al., 2023), suggesting that these family structures do not carry unique burnout risk. Additionally, no significant differences in parental burnout were demonstrated between same-sex and different-sex parents (Gato et al., 2022). Instead, consistent evidence has demonstrated that dispositional factors (e.g., emotional control, perseverance) are more strongly associated with parental burnout than environmental or demographic factors (Le Vigouroux & Scola, 2018; Mikolajczak et al., 2018b). Notably, there has been limited examination of potential differences in parental burnout across racial and ethnic identities. In addition, further research is needed to investigate the potential role of systemic inequities (e.g., institutional racism) in contributing to increased burnout for parents with marginalized racial identities.

Parental burnout has been conceptualized as a chronic unequal balance of risks (e.g., parental perfectionism, lack of external support) relative to resources (e.g., parental self-compassion, strong coparenting support) (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018). Known as the balance of risks and resources (BR2) theory, this framework highlights how a parent’s individual level of internal and external reserves can aid in predicting risk for burnout. One way this imbalance occurs is when parents perceive a heightened sense of responsibility for their children’s development, while not having sufficient resources to meet those demands. This may be especially true for individualistic countries such as the United States, which often place greater responsibility and pressure on individual parents rather than collective communities to raise children. At the same time, access to resources are often constrained, despite the ever-growing demands of parenthood (Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2020). Indeed, cross-cultural evidence demonstrates that parents in individualistic countries are at higher risk for burnout (Roskam et al., 2021; Roskam et al., 2022; Roskam et al., 2024). In recent decades, rising income inequity in the United States has increased parents’ concerns about the security of their children’s futures (Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2020; Schneider et al., 2018) while national policies have failed to provide parents with sufficient support (e.g., paid parental leave, affordable childcare) relative to other countries (Burtle & Bezruchka, 2016; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2020). Therefore, American parents may be prone to an unequal balance of risks, which may subsequently increase their vulnerability to parental burnout.

What are the consequences of parental burnout for parents, children, and families?

Parental burnout has been associated with many adverse health outcomes in parents, similar to occupational burnout or other stress disorders, such as addictive behaviors (e.g., alcohol use, binge eating), depressive symptoms, and sleep disorders (Mikolajczak et al., 2018b; Mikolajczak et al., 2020). However, parental burnout has also been uniquely linked to several more deleterious consequences for parents, such as escape and suicidal ideations (Mikolajczak et al., 2019; Mikolajczak et al., 2023). While those who experience occupational burnout, for example, may experience a reprieve by leaving a workplace or changing jobs, parenting does not afford these options, contributing to feelings of inescapability from role demands and symptoms. Increased rates of escape and suicidal ideations also underscore the public health urgency of addressing rising rates of parental burnout.

Parental burnout symptoms may impair a parents’ ability to exhibit the cognitive and affective control that contributes to warm, responsive parenting. As a result, parents experiencing significant stress or burnout may engage in neglectful or harsh parenting practices. Consistently, parental burnout has been associated with neglectful and harsh parenting concurrently and over time (Aunola et al., 2021; Mikolajczak et al., 2018a; Mikolajczak et al., 2019; Mikolajczak et al., 2023). A growing body of research has demonstrated links between parental burnout and child externalizing and internalizing behaviors in cross-sectional and longitudinal samples (Chen et al., 2022; Woine et al., 2024; Yuan et al., 2022). However, it is important to note that associations between parenting and child behavior are often bidirectional, with children’s behaviors and parental burnout sometimes reciprocally augmenting one another. Parental burnout has also shown associations with adolescent loneliness and antisocial behaviors (Cheng et al., 2020). Taken together, these results highlight the need to target parental burnout in early identification, prevention, and intervention efforts.

What can clinicians do to assess, prevent, and treat parental burnout?

Several psychometrically robust tools have been developed to measure parental burnout, including the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI; Roskam et al., 2017) and the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA; Roskam et al., 2018). Both measures have demonstrated strong, consistent psychometric properties across languages and cultures and have established clinical cut-off scores to help with identification of clinically significant burnout symptoms. (Brianda et al., 2020; Manrique-Millones et al., 2022; Roskam et al., 2021). These measures also demonstrate strong discriminant validity from measures of related constructs, such as anxiety, depression, and job burnout. Additionally, Aunola et al. (2021) developed and provided preliminary support for the utility of a brief parental burnout scale, which aids in the accessibility of screening for parental burnout. Clinicians working with parents or families can use these measures to identify individuals experiencing signs of parental burnout or those at risk due to reported symptoms.

Intervention research on parental burnout is nascent; thus, recommendations for intervention should be considered with caution. However, clinicians can engage in empathetic listening and validate that parents are often doing the best they can with the resources that are accessible to them. Additionally, many of the most salient risk factors for parental burnout (e.g., parental cognitions, emotional competencies, coparenting agreement) can be addressed via psychological intervention (Brianda et al., 2020; Mikolajczak et al., 2018b; Mikolajczak et al., 2023), highlighting the value of advancing evidence-based treatments. To this end, a recent meta-analysis found that randomized controlled trials of group, individual, and online interventions for parental burnout demonstrated moderate-to-large reductions in burnout symptoms relative to controls and that these gains were maintained for up to three months post-treatment (Urbanowicz et al., 2025). Additionally, effects were comparable across intervention type (e.g., cognitive behavioral, mindfulness and acceptance-based) as well as for parents of children with and without chronic conditions. Most of the interventions were brief (i.e., approximately one to two hours weekly across 6 to 12 weeks), potentially making them more accessible to parents already experiencing acute resource strain. Importantly, some of these studies took place in non-Western countries and explicitly centered cultural strength and wisdom, such as spiritual practices (Beheshtipour et al., 2016; Masoumi et al., 2020).

Research has identified five common elements of effective parental burnout interventions include (a) psychoeducation, (b) self-regulation and stress-management skills, (c) values- and identity-focused reflection, (d) experiential practice, and (e) relational awareness and social support (Urbanowicz et al., 2025). Psychoeducation involves increasing parents’ understanding of stress and parental burnout, including how it may relate to an imbalance of resources (e.g., coping skills, supports) relative to risks. Self-regulation and stress management skills vary based on the intervention’s theoretical orientation, but generally includes mindfulness, relaxation, and/or cognitive restructuring. In most interventions, values and identity were regarded as important motivators and resistance to perfectionism or other maladaptive parental cognitions. Additionally, most interventions sought to normalize and validate the parents’ experiences through group reflection, while bolstering social support within and outside of the group. Importantly, these interventions included weekly structured practice outside of the session to solidify new skills.

Group-based interventions have been a common method of intervention delivery for parental burnout (Urbanowicz et al., 2025). Interestingly, even non-directive group interventions that primarily employed empathetic listening in a supportive, relational environment still demonstrated reductions in burnout symptoms (Brianda et al., 2020). These findings are possibly due to the emphasis within group-based interventions on addressing the loneliness and shame that many parents report when experiencing burnout (Hubert & Aujoulat, 2018). In addition, group interventions have demonstrated decreases in neglectful and harsh parenting as well as reductions in heightened hair cortisol (a biomarker of chronic stress) proportional to reductions in parental burnout (Brianda et al., 2020), with further decreases in symptoms observed following interventions (Piotrowski et al., 2026).

Taken together, these findings highlight not only the potential effectiveness of interventions for reducing parental burnout symptoms but also their potential for supporting clients in bolstering psychological resources (e.g., coping skills, support). Such interventions may serve as promising tools for psychologists seeking to promote parents’ well-being and, ultimately, the welfare of youth and families.

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