Parental Burnout in Italian parents: preliminary results of a multiregional project

The literature on Parental Burnout (PB) is in its infancy, but research is moving fast towards its better understanding for instance in terms of risk factors, cross-cultural variations, and consequences on children. Nevertheless, several relevant issues, such as the lack of rigorous scientific designs, the absence of an epidemiological overview of the phenomenon, and a paucity of Italian studies, call for joint systematic efforts to improve our knowledge on this potentially useful construct. The study presents the preliminary results of a multiregional project aimed 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, a sample of Italian parents was recruited from schools in four Italian regions and data are being collected through an online survey, where quantitative data will be integrated with qualitative information. Parents will be asked to provide information pertaining to their demographics, work, family composition, health, and lifestyle together with a set of standardized questionnaires, including the Parental Burnout Assessment. Data will be collected four times, each three months apart. As the project was supported by the PRIN-PNRR funds, data collection has just begun. Therefore, during the conference preliminary results of the first two waves of assessment will be presented. This study 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.