Work-family enrichment and parental burnout: the mediating effects of parenting sense of competence and parenting stress

Recently, the topic of parental burnout has gathered much attention and studies have begun to integrate the parenting and work domain. In this regard, this study aimed to explore the association between work-family enrichment and parental burnout, and the mediation effects of parenting sense of competence and parenting stress. Data were collected at three different time points and questionnaires were distributed to 507 mothers of adolescents. Mothers were asked to report their work-family enrichment and parental burnout at Time (1) Then, their parenting sense of competence and parenting stress at Time (2) Finally, their parental burnout at Time (3) The results of bootstrapping indicated the following: (1) work-family enrichment showed negative association with parental burnout; (2) parenting sense of competence showed negative association with parental burnout, while parenting stress showed positive relation with parental burnout; (3) the relations between work-family enrichment and parental burnout was mediated by parenting sense of competence and parenting stress. Mothers should be made aware that resources from the work domain could buffer against parental burnout directly and indirectly and that when dealing with parental burnout, it is better to take a comprehensive perspective from both family and work domains and pay more attention to the relationships between the two domains.