Childhood Trauma and Parental Burnout: The Mediating Role of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation and Reflective Functioning

Abstract

This study investigated the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation and reflective functioning in the association between childhood trauma and parental burnout. The participants included 402 mothers with children ranging in age from 1 to 6 years. Mothers completed the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) the parental reflective functioning questionnaire (PRFQ), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Data analysis was performed using SPSS 26, and Hayes Macro in SPSS was also used to analyze the effects of mediating variables. The results show that although childhood trauma and parental burnout do not have a direct and significant relationship, there is a significant indirect relationship through difficulties in emotional regulation and the two factors of parental reflective functioning, i.e., pre-mentalization, interest and curiosity about mental states. These findings contribute to the understanding of the importance of variables such as difficulties in emotion regulation and reflective functioning, which play a mediating role in the relationship between childhood trauma and parental burnout. This suggests that designing interventions and prevention to reduce parental burnout based on emotion regulation and reflective functioning may be beneficial.

Keywords

Parental burnout childhood trauma difficulties in emotion regulation parental reflective functioning

Introduction

Parenting is often a challenging experience that involves stress, which is normal, common, and sometimes necessary (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2020). However, when the stress is severe and chronic and parents do not have the necessary resources to cope, they experience parental burnout (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018). Parental burnout, a state of physical and mental in parents, has four basic dimensions, namely exhaustion in the parental role (psychological exhaustion and struggle to preserve energy due to excessive involvement in children’s problems), contrast with one’s previous self (ambivalent feelings of shame if parents believe they are not as good as they were in the past), fed up with one’s parental role (loss of efficiency and performance, and no longer enjoying spending time with one’s children), and emotional distance from one’s children (low relationship or a connection without feeling) (Hubert & Aujoulat, 2018; Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2020). Considering the severe and wide-ranging consequences of parental burnout, including suicidal thoughts, addiction, and sleep problems for parents, conflicts, estrangement between partners, and increased neglectful and violent behaviors toward children, understanding the antecedents and etiology of burnout is extremely important (Mikolajczak, Raes, et al., 2018; Mousavi, 2020). Recent research suggests that several factors may place parents at higher risk for experiencing burnout (Roskam & Mikolajczak, 2020). According to the theory of balance between demand and resources (BR2), parental burnout can result when the demands of parenting chronically outweigh the resources available to parents for coping (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018). In other words, burnout occurs when stressors persist and surpass the level of protective factors, leading to a chronic state of stress in parents. Risk factors, such as parental perfectionism, low emotional intelligence, poor childrearing practices, numerous parental responsibilities, a lack of support from the co-parent, and a lack of external support (such as family support and nurseries), can increase parental stress and the risk of parental burnout (Sorkkila & Aunola, 2020). On the other hand, protective factors such as stress-relieving factors, including parental self-compassion, high emotional intelligence, good child-rearing practices, leisure time, positive co-parenting, and external support can reduce parental burnout (Mikolajczak, Brianda, et al., 2018). Identifying and preventing risk factors is key to reducing parental burnout according to the BR2 theory (Mikolajczak et al., 2019). The BR2 theory states that the level of burnout experienced by parents depends on the interaction between specific vulnerability factors and available resources. However, limited research has focused on risk factors related to parents themselves, which warrants further investigation.

In this research, the focus is on examining parental burnout specifically in mothers, as it is a prevalent phenomenon among them (Roskam & Mikolajczak, 2020). Studies have found that might mothers face higher levels of burnout due to the pressures of parenthood and the societal expectations placed upon them. Moreover, mothers often contend with challenges related to household responsibilities and children’s interference with work, which can exacerbate parental burnout. (Lin et al., 2023). Consequently, these factors suggest that mothers may be more vulnerable to parental burnout due to a combination of biological, social, and cultural influences.

This study investigates the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences, difficulties in emotion regulation, and reflective functioning with parental burnout, highlighting the significant role of these risk factors. By clarifying the factors that contribute to parental burnout, this study can provide crucial guidance for developing effective interventions to better support parents.

Childhood Trauma and Parental Burnout

Many risk factors make parenting difficult, among these important risk factors are parents’ traumas during their childhood (Kalmakis & Chandler, 2015). Childhood trauma, which may be chronic and vary in severity, is linked to negative health outcomes in adulthood, including psychological, behavioral, social, and physical problems (Rowell & Neal-Barnett, 2022). One consequence of experiencing early trauma in adulthood is the potential for difficulties in parenting. The intergenerational impact of childhood trauma on the parent-child relationship is complex and significant for parents who experienced neglect or abuse in their childhood (San Cristobal et al., 2017). The experience of childhood trauma can have a damaging impact on the psychological, cognitive, and behavioral functioning of parents who may not possess the necessary skills to effectively manage their emotions and negative thoughts (Cooke et al., 2019). This obstacle presents significant challenges for parents, potentially hindering their ability to effectively care and play a supportive role in sensitive and stressful situations (Sroufe et al., 1999). One of the common goals of parenting is to provide security and support for children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development into adulthood, but this is a difficult task for those who have experienced early abuse or family dysfunction (Lange et al., 2019). The impact of intergenerational trauma on the way people raise their children sometimes manifests itself as a lack of energy and resources to deal with the challenges of bringing up children and will include consequences such as stress from the role of parent (Steele et al., 2016). Despite this evidence, the intergenerational transmission of childhood trauma to parental burnout remains questionable and unclear.

The Mediating Role of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation is the process of employing both conscious and unconscious cognitive and behavioral techniques to manage the intensity, duration, and expression of emotions (Gratz et al., 2015). Difficulties in emotion regulation are defined as a lack of ability to cope with emotional situations or the use of maladaptive methods. Difficulty in emotion regulation has 6 dimensions, including Limited Emotion Regulation Strategies (difficulty in emotion regulation following distress), Non-Acceptance (tendency to secondary reactions to negative emotions and denial of distress) and Difficulty in Impulse Control (difficulty in controlling behavior when upset) and Difficulty in Engagement with Goals (difficulty in concentrating and completing tasks when faced with negative emotions) and Lack of Emotional Awareness (neglecting emotional reactions) and Lack of Emotional Clarity (lack of clarity about emotions experienced) (Gratz & Roemer, 2004). Childhood trauma increases difficulties in emotion regulation (Erol & Inozu, 2023). Several studies have demonstrated that the formation of the ability to regulate emotions takes place from childhood under the influence of primary and root factors, including childhood experiences, because the development of emotion regulation, the process of expressing, understanding, and communicating emotions, is shaped by primary parent-child relationships (Ehrensaft et al., 2015; McLafferty et al., 2020). Experiencing trauma such as sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, and/or emotional neglect can hurt coping strategies and the ability to regulate emotions in different situations (Wang, 2022). This is because coping strategies and emotional regulation are learned through interactions between caregivers and children, and people who have experienced trauma early in life may use unhealthy strategies in the face of problems, such as avoidance, denial, wishful thinking, or emotional suppression. Or emotional suppression (Mares et al., 2023). The ability to regulate emotions is involved in all stages of human life and communication with different people and affects different human roles, including parenting, from childhood to adulthood (Deater-Deckard, 1998). Parents who have difficulty regulating their emotions perceive parental responsibilities as more stressful than parents who are better at regulating their emotions (Gau et al., 2010). Although parental burnout and its underlying mechanisms have much in common with stress, parents who can manage their emotions adaptively can reduce the negative effects of parental burnout and even control its transmission to their children (Yang et al., 2021). Therefore, the ability to regulate emotions, which begins to develop in childhood, represents the ability of parents to cope with parental burnout and, conversely, predicts the difficulty and lack of emotion regulation skills during the period of burnout (Vertsberger et al., 2022). Therefore, this study investigates this relationship.

The Mediating Role of Reflective Functioning

Reflective functioning in general refers to the disclosure of the individual’s capacity for mentalization, and parental reflective functioning as a specific concept refers to the capacity of parents to reflect on their own and their child’s inner mental states (Slade, 2005). Reflective parenting refers to the parent or caregiver’s capacity to imagine their child through the lens of internal mental states such as feelings, wishes, and desires (Luyten, Nijssens, et al., 2017). It also requires the caregiver’s ability to reflect on his or her internal mental states, to interact with the child, observe changes in mental states over time, and observe how the parent’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors affect the child (Nijssens et al., 2021). Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF) comprises of three modes: pre-mentalizing, certainty about mental states, and interest and curiosity in mental states. These modes reflect parents’ ability to consider their child’s internal experiences and understand their behavior in light of underlying mental states. Pre-mentalizing refers to difficulties in understanding and reflecting on mental states, while certainty about mental states reflects a parent’s confidence in their understanding of their child’s thoughts and feelings. Interest and curiosity in mental states indicate a parent’s openness and engagement in understanding their child’s internal experiences (Luyten, Nijssens, et al., 2017). Early childhood experiences influence the formation of reflective functioning in parents because childhood adversity prevents the proper development of mentalizing skills (Håkansson et al., 2018). Parents who have experienced early experiences such as sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and neglect may have a lower capacity for reflective functioning (Rowell & Neal-Barnett, 2022). A person’s developmental history may be related to their psychological functioning and personality traits, particularly in the parenting role, it suggests that there is a link between childhood trauma and the ability to mentalize (Håkansson et al., 2018). Based on the research literature, it can be concluded that early experiences can influence parents’ attitudes and behaviors through reflective functioning (Nijssens et al., 2018). A Low capacity for mentalization is associated with higher levels of stress in people, while sufficient capacity for reflection is associated with increased tolerance of child distress and reduced parenting problems. Parents with weaker PRF may feel less competent and less effective, leading to higher levels of parental stress and feelings of inadequacy, which are signs of parental burnout (Stuhrmann et al., 2022). Therefore, examining the mediating role of reflective functioning may clarify the relationship between childhood trauma and burnout.

The Present Study

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between childhood trauma and parental burnout, as well as the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation and parental reflective functioning. Parental burnout is of particular importance for two reasons: first, it emphasizes the importance of parental well-being and the risk of parental fatigue in the parenting process. Second, it highlights that parental burnout affects children themselves, leading to increased parental neglect and violence toward them (Roskam & Mikolajczak, 2020). Because of the importance of parental burnout, the role of deep factors and underlying variables may be more compelling to find the cause) Raudasoja et al., 2023 (. One of these deep factors is childhood trauma, and the path from childhood that causes problems in parenting is unclear. Therefore, this research clarified the path of intergenerational transmission of childhood trauma through the variables of difficulties in emotion regulation and reflective functioning on parental burnout, because the emotional variables that begin to form in childhood are the key elements of this path (Vertsberger et al., 2022). Therefore, the following hypotheses have been proposed: (1) Childhood trauma would positively and significantly predict parental burnout. (2) Difficulties in emotion regulation played a mediating role between childhood trauma and parental burnout. (3) Parental reflective functioning factors played a mediating role between childhood trauma and parental burnout. Figure 1

Figure 1.

The proposed model PB = Parental burnout, PM = Pre-Mentalizing, CM = Certainty about Mental States, IC = Interest and Curiosity in Mental States, CT = Childhood Trauma, DER = Difficulties in Emotion Regulation.

Materials and Methods

Participants

A study was conducted in which a group of Iranian mothers with at least one child older than 1 year participated by completing 423 questionnaires using available sampling methods. To estimate the sample size, we used G power software version 3.1.9.2, considering 5 predictor variables, significance level (α) 0.1, and effect size ƒ2 0.1, the sample size was estimated to be 395 samples. Note that more subjects were enrolled to avoid dropout. In this study, 423 surveys were completed by Iranian mothers. After checking the number of invalid surveys, 21 invalid surveys were excluded from the analysis, resulting in a final sample size of 402 surveys. The mothers’ ages ranged from 19 to 33 years (M = 26.28, SD = 5.29). 31.1% of mothers had only girls, 40.3% of mothers had only boys, and 28.6% percent of mothers had both girls and boys. The youngest child was 1 year old, and the oldest was 6 years old. 31.1% of mothers were working and 68.9% of mothers were not working.

Procedure

Data collection for the research project began in March 2023 and was approved by the university ethics committee. During the study, participants were provided with an informed consent form outlining that their data would be employed anonymously for scientific purposes. They were assured of their right to withdraw from the research at any time should they choose to do so, maintaining their privacy and autonomy throughout the process. To facilitate participation by the mothers, an online questionnaire was designed using a Google Form, which was distributed to targeted groups for mothers parenting via social networks like Telegram and Instagram, as well as relevant websites. By sharing the questionnaire link, the researchers ensured easy accessibility and response submission, ultimately enhancing the study’s methodology and convenience for the participants. By completing the questionnaire, participants were also able to enroll in free parenting classes taught by trained instructors.

Measures

The Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA)

The parental burnout assessment was developed by Roskam et al. (2018) and a Persian version of the assessment was used in the research conducted by Mousavi et al. (2020). It has 23 items that are scored on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from never (0) to every day (6). It has 4 subscales: exhaustion in a parental role, contrast with the previous parental self, feelings of being fed up as a parent, and emotional distancing from one’s children. The range of these scores is from 0 to 138, and the closer the scores are to 0, the less parental burnout; the closer the scores are to 138, the greater the burnout. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is .97 for the total score and .93, .93, .90, and .81 for the scores of the 4 subscales (Roskam et al., 2018). In this study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .97.

Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ)

The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire was developed by Bernstein et al. (2003) And in this research, the Persian version was used (Ebrahimi et al., 2014). The questionnaire consists of 28 items that are scored on a 5-point Likert scale from never (1) to Always (5). It has 5 subscales: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. The range of scores for each of the subscales is 5–25 and for the total questionnaire is 25–125. Higher scores indicate more childhood maltreatment. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is .89. For the total score and .86, .78, .77, .82, and .79 for the scores of the 5 subscales (Bernstein et al., 2003). In the present study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .82.

Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ)

The parental reflective functioning questionnaire was developed by Luyten (2017) and was used in the Persian version (Mousawi & Bahrami Ehsan, 2020). The questionnaire consisted of 18 items that are scored on an 8-point Likert scale from strongly disagree (0) to strongly agree (7). It has 3 subscales clinically and theoretically: pre-mentalization state (PM) which shows denial or defense against mentalization, Certainty about Mental States (CMS) which shows excessive confidence in children’s mental states or uncertainty about are to the mental states of the child, and Interest and Curiosity in Mental States (IC) indicates curiosity about the child’s internal states. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .73, .73, and .72 respectively (Mousawi & Bahrami Ehsan, 2020). In this study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of pre-mentalization, certainty of mental state, and curiosity about mental state were .70, .69, and .73, respectively.

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS)

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale was developed by Gratz and Roemer (2004), and in this research, the Persian version was used (Besharat, 2019). This scale has 36 items and is scored on a 6-point Likert scale, ranging from never (0) to always (5). It has 6 subscales: nonacceptance of negative emotions, difficulties engaging in goal-directed behaviors, difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors, limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies, lack of emotional awareness, and lack of emotional clarity. Scores range from 36 to 180, with higher scores indicating greater emotional difficulty. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is .91 for the total score and .88, .89, .90, .89, .86, and .90 for the scores of the 6 subscales (Besharat, 2019). In the present study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .91.

Data Analysis

There were no missing data in this study. All participants were required to answer all questions completely before submitting their responses. Initially, descriptive statistics and a correlation matrix were calculated using SPSS version 26.0. Subsequently, the PROCESS macro for SPSS, particularly Model 4 (Parallel Multiple Mediator Model) from Hayes (2017), was utilized to investigate the possible mediating role of the variables under consideration. In this study, 5000 bootstrapped samples with a 95% confidence interval were used to examine the mediating roles of difficulties in emotion regulation and reflective functioning.

Results

Descriptive Statistics and Correlations

In Table 1, the skewness values for the study variables range from −0.83 to 1.96, while the kurtosis values fall between −0.56 and 0.92. These values indicate that the distributions of these variables can be considered normal, thereby supporting the assumption of normality in the analysis. Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, and Pearson correlations among the study variables. The results revealed that Childhood Trauma was positively correlated with Parental Burnout (r = .37, p < .001), Difficulties in emotional regulation (r = .50, p < .001), and Pre-mentalization (r = .31, p < .001). Conversely, Childhood Trauma exhibited negative correlations with Certainty about Mental States (r = −.20, p < .001) and Interest and Curiosity (r = −.30, p < .001). Pre-mentalization (PM) demonstrated a positive and significant correlation with Parental Burnout (r = .55, p < .001), while Certainty about Mental States had a negative correlation with Parental Burnout (r = −.26, p < .001) and Interest and Curiosity (r = −.40, p < .001). Lastly, there was a significant positive correlation between Difficulties in Emotion Regulation and Parental Burnout (r = .62, p < .001).

Table 1.

Mean, Standard Deviation, Correlation Coefficient Matrix, Skewness, and Kurtosis.

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1. CT	-
2. PB	.38^**	-
3. PM	.31^**	.55^**	-
4. CM	−.20^**	−.26^**	−.29^**	-
5. IC	−.30^**	−.40^**	−.40^**	.57^**	-
6. DER	.50^**	.62^**	.44^**	−.35^**	−.36^**	-
M	37.22	20.19	30.43	32.86	56.18	93.85
SD	35.73	7.94	5.62	5.97	18.09	26.88
Skewness	1.96	.42	−.63	−.83	.96	.39
Kurtosis	.06	−.50	.61	.92	.72	−.56

**p < .01. PB = Parental burnout, PM = Pre-Mentalizing, CM = Certainty about Mental States, IC = Interest and Curiosity in Mental States, CT = The Childhood Trauma, DER = Difficulties in Emotion Regulation.

Testing the Hypothesized Model

Our model features Childhood Trauma as the independent variable, Parental Reflective Functioning and Emotion Regulation Difficulties as mediators, and Parental Burnout as the dependent variable. This study examines how these factors may link Childhood Trauma to Parental Burnout. In Table 2 and Figure 2, we present the outcomes of parallel multiple mediator analyses, which explore the indirect influence of Childhood Trauma on Parental Burnout through Parental Reflective Functioning modes and difficulties in emotion regulation. As shown in Table 2, after accounting for the mediator variables, childhood trauma was not significantly associated with parental burnout (β = .04, p > .05). This finding led to the rejection of the initial hypothesis. Childhood trauma served as a positive and significant predictor of difficulties in emotion regulation (β = .13, p < .05) and positively predicted pre-mentalization (β = .31, p < .05). It negatively and significantly influenced certainty (β = −.19, p < .05) and curiosity (β = −0.30, p < .05). In the context of this study, difficulties in emotional regulation (β = .20, 95% CI [.148, .260]), pre-mentalization (β = .09, SE = .02, p < .05; 95% CI [.052, .136]), and interest in curiosity (β = .05, 95% CI [.016, .086]) significantly mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and parental burnout. However, the indirect effect of childhood trauma through certainty on parental burnout was not significant (β = −.01, 95% CI [-.039, .002]).

Table 2.

Standard Coefficients of Direct and Indirect Effects.

Variables	B	SE	95% bootstrap confidence interval
Variables	B	SE	LLCI	ULCI
Direct effects
CT →PB	.04	−.37	−.077	.239
PM →PB	^**.31	1.96	.102	.273
CM →PB	.07	1.96	−.079	.005
IC →PB	^**-.15	1.80	.031	.172
DER→ PB	^**.44	8.39	.288	.527
CT → DER	^**.46	.66	.551	.811
CT → PM	^**.31	.21	.093	.175
CT → CM	^**-.19	.01	−.090	−.030
CT→ IC	^**-.30	.01	−.131	−.069
Indirect effects
CT → PM → PB	^**.09	.02	.052	.136
CT → CM → PB	−.01	.01	−.039	.002
CT → IC → PB	^**.05	.01	.016	.086
CT →DER → PB	^**.20	.02	.148	.260

**p < .01. PB = Parental burnout, PM = Pre-Mentalizing, CM = Certainty about Mental States, IC = Interest and Curiosity in Mental States, CT = Childhood Trauma, DER = Difficulties in Emotion Regulation.

Figure 2.

Analyzed model of the relationships among research variables. **p < .01.

The partial indirect effects revealed that childhood trauma is more related to difficulties in emotion regulation with parental burnout. As a result, Hypothesis 2 was supported, and Hypothesis 3 was partially supported. The results are shown in Figure 2.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between childhood trauma and parental burnout, considering the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation and reflective functioning. The results of this research indicated no significant direct relationship between childhood trauma and parental burnout. This argument can be persuasive because it implies that childhood trauma, along with its varying mediating factors and parent-related aspects, can lead to disorders like stress and parental burnout (Vertsberger et al., 2022). Many parents may have experienced trauma in their childhood, but some characteristics and factors can break this cycle of trauma transmission and not have a negative impact on them in the future (Burke et al., 2021). Parenting problems, including parental stress and burnout, have multifactorial antecedents, and childhood trauma is one of the triggers that depletes parents’ resources and reduces their capacity in various ways (Moe et al., 2018). Therefore, according to this case, it is important to study the basic mechanism of the effects of childhood trauma on various aspects of people throughout life. In this study, although trauma did not directly predict burnout, it affects parental burnout through indirect effects and other factors. In other words, childhood trauma can predict parental burnout in two ways. Difficulties in emotional regulation and reflective functioning (pre-mentalizing and interest and curiosity in mental States) are two indirect ways in which childhood trauma affects parental burnout. Various childhood traumas have a negative impact on emotion regulation, which involves the identification, expression, and management of emotions (Mares et al., 2023). They even have problems using the correct emotion regulation strategies, i.e., instead of using successful strategies such as cognitive reappraisal, they use incompatible strategies such as expressive suppression, disengagement, and rumination (Gau et al., 2010). The results of this research also revealed that not using proper emotion regulation skills leads to problems in parenting and causes people to become exhausted as parents (Yang et al., 2021). When they have trouble regulating their emotions, they attribute wrong and malicious intentions to their child’s mental states (e.g., my child is intentionally trying to hurt me) (Wang, 2022). In addition, when negative emotions are generated, the lack of adequate knowledge about the reason for generating these emotions, as well as limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies, leads to problems in parenting attitudes in the future. Such stressful conditions will lead to burnout. Consequently, childhood trauma, which carries negative implications for people’s emotional regulation, may, in the long run, impair parents’ ability to grasp and regulate their emotions, potentially leading to burnout. Another indirect pathway examined in this study is the mediating role of reflective functioning. According to our expectations, the results showed that childhood trauma has a negative effect on the formation of reflective functioning. Mentalization is a potential capacity that can be learned through social experiences during the first years of life by observing and interpreting the behaviors and expressions of others as they provide an opportunity to learn mental states through deep processing of the social environment (Slade, 2005). It can therefore be concluded that primary trauma interferes with the effective formation of reflective functioning. According to the results, PM and IC played a mediating role between childhood trauma and parental burnout in this study. IC is one of the dimensions of reflective functioning, based on which a low score in this subscale indicates that parents do not see their child as a person separate from themselves, and as a result, it is difficult to understand the child’s mental state (Rojas, 2021). Another factor is PM, which has a positive and significant relationship with traumatic experiences; it indicates severe disorders in parental reflective functioning. Its high level indicates that parents are unable to enter into the inner world of their child and attribute malicious and incompatible views to him. (Luyten, Nijssens, et al., 2017). Another factor of reflective functioning is Certainty about Mental States (CMS). Low levels of CMS in parents indicate excessive uncertainty and ambiguity about the inner psychological world of the child (Brady, 2022). Considering that the PRF is a multidimensional structure and each dimension shows different characteristics of mentalizing ability, the results of the present study based on the significance of the indirect effects of PM and IC dimensions clarify the importance of these dimensions. Therefore, regarding the non-significance of the indirect effect of CM, it should be pointed out that in different samples of mothers, different results may be obtained regarding the role of reflective functioning dimensions in parenting problems. As in the study (Nijssens et al., 2018), only the PM dimension played a mediating role in the relationship between parental attachment and parenting stress, while the other dimensions were not significant. The interpretation of the findings in this part of the study should be done with caution, and more research is needed in the future. However, it can be concluded that disturbances in these areas are associated with consequences such as parental insensitivity and lack of appropriate communication with children, which can lead to parental burnout (Stuhrmann et al., 2022).

According to the findings of the present research, impaired levels of reflective functioning resulting from early traumatic experiences can pose challenges for parents in accepting and coping with the role of parenting, potentially impacting their capacity and increasing the risk of burnout. Finally, this research demonstrated that difficulties in emotion regulation and reflective functioning mediate the intergenerational transmission of childhood trauma to parental burnout. In this manner, trauma complicates the development of both factors, thereby reducing the resources necessary for parenting.

Theoretical and Practical Implications

This study examined the predictors of parental burnout, including childhood trauma, through reflective functioning and difficulties in emotion regulation. Based on the theory of balance between resources and risks, higher risks lead to burnout. Research that has examined the underlying factors, or demands that cause burnout has found that factors such as low perceived social support, lack of leisure time, financial worries, and illness and child problems are effective (Lindström et al., 2011). Given the wide-ranging factors that influence burnout, the role of deeper factors such as personality factors, perfectionism, and underlying variables may be more compelling (Raudasoja et al., 2023). Few studies have examined the role of deep and underlying risk factors related to the parents themselves. The importance of this research lies in the variables and factors that play a fundamental role in parents’ attitudes toward parenting that have not been studied in this way to predict burnout. On the other hand, by further investigating these risk factors and resolving them based on the theory of balance between resources and risks, the burnout rate was reduced. One of the other applications of this research is that it is possible to take measures such as prevention, management, and treatment of burnout using research variables. The question of what happens between the intergenerational transmission of childhood trauma experiences and becoming a parent is the key to such interventions.

Limitations and Future Directions

This study has significantly expanded our understanding of parental burnout antecedents by exploring intergenerational trauma transmission through emotion regulation and reflective functioning challenges. However, it is crucial to acknowledge its limitations, such as the self-selected and predominantly convenience sampling approach, which may impact the study’s generalizability. The study exclusively involved mothers, and future investigations should consider examining fathers to compare results between parents. Additionally, the cross-sectional design of the study makes it difficult to establish causal relationships among the variables. To enhance the comprehension of these connections, it is advisable to adopt a longitudinal research design in future studies. Furthermore, although the model proposed by the authors received empirical support, it is essential to recognize the absence of crucial demographic and confounding variables, such as income, age, and the number of children in the household, as limitations of the article. Controlling for these factors would have provided a more comprehensive and accurate representation of the study’s findings. As a future suggestion, researchers should consider incorporating these variables into their investigations to enhance the validity and generalizability of their results.

Conclusions

The current study confirmed the underlying theory of burnout, BR², and demonstrated the role of new factors in creating and maintaining parental burnout. By examining mediating variables such as difficulties in emotional regulation and reflective functioning, the cycle of transmission of trauma can be broken, and its negative effects on future roles, such as parenting, reduced. These findings emphasize the significance of a past-oriented approach to factors related to parents and guide future research. In addition, designing interventions to improve emotional regulation and reflective functioning can reduce the intergenerational transmission of trauma to parental burnout.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to all mothers who participated in this research.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical Statement

ORCID iDs

Narges Ensanimehr

Gholam Reza Dehshiri

Seyyedeh Fatemeh Mousavi

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.*

Author Biographies

Narges Ensanimehr is a PhD in psychology at Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran. Her research interests include Parent-child Interactions, Child and adolescent health, and Parenting interventions.

Gholam reza Dehshiri is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Alzahra University. His research interests are childhood and parenting issues, and positive psychology

Seyyedeh Fatemeh Mousavi is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the Women Research Center in the only single-sex university of Iran, who has been studying and researching Iranian families for more than 10 years in the field of marital interactions and parenting. She has many books and papers in various fields of Gender, Marital and Parent-child Interactions. Since 2018, she has been active as a member of IIPB consortium in the field of Parental Burnout, and now she is a member of the editorial board and responsible director of the Journal of Women and Family Studies.

References

Bernstein

D. P.

Stein

J. A.

Newcomb

M. D.

Walker

Pogge

Ahluvalia

Stokes

Handelsman

Medrano

Desmond

Zule

(2003). Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Child Abuse & Neglect, 27(2), 169–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0145-2134(02)00541-0

Besharat

M. A.

(2019). Difficulties in Emotion regulation scale. Thoughts and Behavior in Clinical Psychology, 13(47), 89–92.

Brady

(2022). Dispositional joy as a mediator of adverse childhood experiences and parental reflective functioning. Doctoral Dissertation. Walden University.

Burke

Fitzhenry

Houghton

Fortune

D. G.

(2021). Breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma: Evaluating the impact of parental adverse childhood experiences on parenting group outcomes using a mixed-methods approach. Children and Youth Services Review, 130, 106223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106223

Cooke

J. E.

Racine

Plamondon

Tough

Madigan

(2019). Maternal adverse childhood experiences, attachment style, and mental health: Pathways of transmission to child behavior problems. Child Abuse & Neglect, 93, 27–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.04.011

Deater-Deckard

(1998). Parenting stress and child adjustment: Some old hypotheses and new questions. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 5(3), 314–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.1998.tb00152.x

Ebrahimi

Dejkam

Seghatoleslam

(2014). Childhood traumas and suicide attempt in adulthood. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, 19(4), 275–282. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-46205-004

Ehrensaft

M. K.

Knous-Westfall

H. M.

Cohen

Chen

(2015). How does child abuse history influence parenting of the next generation? Psychology of Violence, 5(1), 16–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036080

Erol

Inozu

(2023). An investigation of the mediating roles of emotion regulation difficulties, distress tolerance, self-compassion, and self-disgust in the association between childhood trauma and nonsuicidal self-injury. Archives of Suicide Research, 28(3), 815–829. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2023.2237083

10.

Gau

S. S. F.

Chou

M. C.

Lee

J. C.

Wong

C. C.

Chou

W. J.

Chen

M. F.

Soong

W. T.

Y. Y.

(2010). Behavioral problems and parenting style among Taiwanese children with autism and their siblings. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 64(1), 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1819.2009.02034.x

11.

Gratz

K. L.

Roemer

(2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26(1), 41–54. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:joba.0000007455.08539.94

12.

Gratz

K. L.

Weiss

N. H.

Tull

M. T.

(2015). Examining emotion regulation as an outcome, mechanism, or target of psychological treatments. Current opinion in psychology, 3, 85–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.02.010

13.

Håkansson

Watten

Söderström

Skårderud

Øie

M. G.

(2018). Adverse and adaptive childhood experiences are associated with parental reflective functioning in mothers with substance use disorder. Child Abuse & Neglect, 81, 259–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.05.007

14.

Hayes

A. F.

(2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford publications.

15.

Hubert

Aujoulat

(2018). Parental burnout: When exhausted mothers open up. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01021

16.

Kalmakis

K. A.

Chandler

G. E.

(2015). Health consequences of adverse childhood experiences: A systematic review. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 27(8), 457–465. https://doi.org/10.1002/2327-6924.12215

17.

Lange

B. C.

Callinan

L. S.

Smith

M. V.

(2019). Adverse childhood experiences and their relation to parenting stress and parenting practices. Community Mental Health Journal, 55(4), 651–662. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-018-0331-z

18.

Lin

Wang

Lin

Jia

Chang

(2023). The mediating role of perceived social support: Alexithymia and parental burnout in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1139618. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1139618

19.

Lindström

Åman

Norberg

A. L.

(2011). Parental burnout in relation to sociodemographic, psychosocial and personality factors as well as disease duration and glycaemic control in children with Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Acta Paediatrica, 100(7), 1011–1017. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02198.x

20.

Luyten

Mayes

L. C.

Nijssens

Fonagy

(2017). The parental reflective functioning questionnaire: Development and preliminary validation. PLoS One, 12(5), Article e0176218. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176218

21.

Luyten

Nijssens

Fonagy

Mayes

L. C.

(2017). Parental reflective functioning: Theory, research, and clinical applications. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 70(1), 174–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/00797308.2016.1277901

22.

Mares

L. S.

Davenport

R. A.

Kiropoulos

L. A.

(2023). Adverse childhood experiences and depression, anxiety, and eating disorders: The mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty and emotion regulation difficulty. Traumatology. https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000442

23.

McLafferty

Bunting

B. P.

Armour

Lapsley

Ennis

Murray

O’Neill

S. M.

(2020). The mediating role of emotion regulation strategies on psychopathology and suicidal behaviour following negative childhood experiences. Children and Youth Services Review, 116, 105212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105212

24.

Mikolajczak

Brianda

M. E.

Avalosse

Roskam

(2018). Consequences of parental burnout: Its specific effect on child neglect and violence. Child Abuse & Neglect, 80, 134–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.03.025

25.

Mikolajczak

Gross

J. J.

Roskam

(2019). Parental burnout: What is it, and why does it matter? Clinical Psychological Science, 7(6), 1319–1329. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702619858430

26.

Mikolajczak

Raes

M. E.

Avalosse

Roskam

(2018). Exhausted parents: Sociodemographic, child-related, parent-related, parenting and family-functioning correlates of parental burnout. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(2), 602–614. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0892-4

27.

Mikolajczak

Roskam

(2018). A theoretical and clinical framework for parental burnout: The balance between risks and resources (BR2). Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 886. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00886

28.

Mikolajczak

Roskam

(2020). Parental burnout: Moving the focus from children to parents. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2020(174), 7–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20376

29.

Moe

Von Soest

Fredriksen

Olafsen

K. S.

Smith

(2018). The multiple determinants of maternal parenting stress 12 months after birth: The contribution of antenatal attachment style, adverse childhood experiences, and infant temperament. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1987. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01987

30.

Mousavi

S. F.

(2020). Psychological well-being, marital satisfaction, and parental burnout in Iranian parents: The effect of home quarantine during COVID-19 outbreaks. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 553880. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.553880

31.

Mousavi

S. F.

Mikolajczak

Roskam

(2020). Parental burnout in Iran: Psychometric properties of the Persian (farsi) version of the parental burnout assessment (PBA). New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2020(174), 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20369

32.

Mousawi

Bahrami Ehsan

(2020). A preliminary study of psychometric properties of the parental reflective functioning questionnaire (prfq) on an iranian sample. Journal of Applied Psychological Research, 11(3), 55–68. https://doi.org/10.22059/JAPR.2020.297614.643446

33.

Nijssens

Bleys

Casalin

Vliegen

Luyten

(2018). Parental attachment dimensions and parenting stress: The mediating role of parental reflective functioning. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(6), 2025–2036. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1029-0

34.

Nijssens

Luyten

Malcorps

Vliegen

Mayes

(2021). Parental reflective functioning and theory of mind acquisition: A developmental perspective. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 39(4), 584–602. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12383

35.

Raudasoja

Sorkkila

Aunola

(2023). Self-esteem, socially prescribed perfectionism, and parental burnout. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32(4), 1113–1120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02324-y

36.

Rojas

(2021). Emotional regulation as a mediator of adverse childhood experiences and parental reflective functioning. Alliant International University. Doctoral Dissertation.

37.

Roskam

Brianda

M. E.

Mikolajczak

(2018). A step forward in the conceptualization and measurement of parental burnout: The Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA). Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 758. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00758

38.

Roskam

Mikolajczak

(2020). Gender differences in the nature, antecedents and consequences of parental burnout. Sex Roles, 83(7-8), 485–498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01121-5

39.

Rowell

Neal-Barnett

(2022). A systematic review of the effect of parental adverse childhood experiences on parenting and child psychopathology. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 15(1), 167–180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00400-x

40.

San Cristobal

Santelices

M. P.

Miranda Fuenzalida

D. A.

(2017). Manifestation of trauma: The effect of early traumatic experiences and adult attachment on parental reflective functioning. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 449. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00449

41.

Slade

(2005). Parental reflective functioning: An introduction. Attachment & Human Development, 7(3), 269–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730500245906

42.

Sorkkila

Aunola

(2020). Risk factors for parental burnout among Finnish parents: The role of socially prescribed perfectionism. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(3), 648–659. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01607-1

43.

Sroufe

L. A.

Carlson

E. A.

Levy

A. K.

Egeland

(1999). Implications of attachment theory for developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 11(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579499001923

44.

Steele

Bate

Steele

Dube

S. R.

Danskin

Knafo

Nikitiades

Bonuck

Meissner

Murphy

(2016). Adverse childhood experiences, poverty, and parenting stress. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 48(1), 32–38. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000034

45.

Stuhrmann

L. Y.

Göbel

Bindt

Mudra

(2022). Parental reflective functioning and its association with parenting behaviors in infancy and early childhood: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 765312. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.765312

46.

Vertsberger

Roskam

Talmon

Van Bakel

Hall

Mikolajczak

Gross

J. J.

(2022). Emotion regulation during the COVID-19 pandemic: Risk and resilience factors for parental burnout (IIPB). Cognition & Emotion, 36(1), 100–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2021.2005544

47.

Wang

(2022). Intergenerational effects of childhood maltreatment: The roles of parents’ emotion regulation and mentalization. Child Abuse & Neglect, 128, 104940. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.104940

48.

Yang

Chen

B. B.

Zhu

(2021). Impacts of parental burnout on Chinese youth’s mental health: The role of parents’ autonomy support and emotion regulation. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50(8), 1679–1692. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01450-y