Psychological factors of parental burnout of fathers and mothers

The study of parental burnout of fathers as well as mothers is relevant, since it may be the source of family trouble in general. The purpose of the study is to identify the factors of parental burnout of fathers and mothers. It is assumed that there are multidirectional correlations between the intensity of parental burnout components and parental sets, the attitude of spouses to the family role, and the consistency of the family functions of fathers and mothers. The study was carried out on a sample of parents of full families in Saratov, raising biological children (N = 61, 40 women (aged M = 32), 21 men (M = 33.9)). The applied methods include the questionnaires "Parental Burnout" (I. N. Efimova); "Role Expectations and Claims in Marriage" (N. A. Volkova), "Parental Attitude Research Instrument " (E. S. Schaefer and R. K. Bell, adapted by T. V. Nescheret and T. V. Arkhireeva), the questionnaire on marital satisfaction (V. V. Stolin, T. L. Romanova, G. P. Butenko). The largest number of correlations between the parameters of parental burnout and parental sets, the attitude of spouses to the family role and family functions have been revealed in the sample of mothers. It has been found out that in both samples the level of "emotional exhaustion" is interrelated with the parental predisposition to excessive strictness towards the child. However, the emotional exhaustion of mothers is more mediated by their dependence on the family and low self-assessment as a parent, whereas fathers’ burnout is due to the focus on the child and the desire to accelerate their development. The level of "depersonalization" in the sample of mothers correlates with the level of their concentration on the child, the consistency of family functions ("emotional and psychotherapeutic", "social activity", "physical attractiveness of the partner"), and marital satisfaction. In the sample of fathers, it correlates with the scales related to the sphere of marital relations (physical attractiveness of the partner, the degree of the father’s involvement in family affairs and marital satisfaction). The degree of the "parental achievements reduction" in the sample of mothers is associated with the balance of "intimacyseparateness" or its lack in the family system; in the sample of fathers it is connected with the availability or lack of verbal contact with the child and the father's acceptance of the child’s natural development. The applied aspect of the problem under study consists of the possibility of using the results in the practice of advisory services.