Cognitive Appraisals in Parental Burnout: A Preliminary Analysis

Details

Supervisors

Isabelle Roskam ; Moïra Mikolajczak

Faculty

Faculté de psychologie, logopédie, sexologie et des sciences de la famille

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences psychologiques, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

Thus far, data collected around the globe have consistently shown that sociodemographic characteristics account for a small proportion of explained variance in parental burnout. The present study conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic sets out to find out whether (i) sociodemographic characteristics are more predictive of parental burnout in a situation of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic than usual, (ii) situational factors, that is, the specific restrictive living conditions inherent in the context of lockdown, predict parental burnout better than sociodemographic characteristics do and (iii) the impact of both sociodemographic and situational factors might be moderated or mediated by the parents’ subjective perception of the impact that the health crisis has had on their parenting circumstances. Results show that, within the context of lockdown, both sociodemographic and situational factors explain a negligible proportion of variance in parental burnout. By contrast, cognitive appraisals, or the subjective perception that the parents have of their parenthood within the context of the health crisis, were found to play both a crucial mediating and moderating role in the prediction of parental burnout.