Stress levels of burned-out parents can be higher than those of people in extreme pain, according to research by Moira Mikolajczak. She tells New Scientist why the pandemic has brought new urgency to her work
“A STATE of vital exhaustion.” This is a surprisingly poetic description of burnout by the World Health Organization. Burnout – severe exhaustion caused by uncontrolled chronic stress – is increasingly becoming the focus of health research. It was originally identified as a work-related phenomenon, but now a form that affects parents is coming under the spotlight.
Any parent can relate to the fatigue associated with looking after a child. But for some parents, that tiredness can tip into harmful exhaustion, leaving them physically unwell and damaging their relationships with their children and partners.
Moïra Mikolajczak at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Belgium has been at the forefront of research into parental burnout. Over the past five years, she and her colleagues have found that it isn’t something that just affects parents of ill children – it can affect any parent, although it is more likely to affect highly educated people who are perfectionists and put too much pressure on themselves.
Since Mikolajczak began studying the phenomenon, the field has expanded. A consortium of researchers she launched a few years ago to investigate parental burnout now has 90 members. The advent of covid-19 lockdowns, which have led to many parents juggling childcare with homeworking, has made the research more relevant and the need to understand this condition more urgent, says Mikolajczak. She tells New Scientist which factors can tip parents over the edge and how all parents can help protect themselves from extreme exhaustion.
Jessica Hamzelou: What is parental burnout?
Moïra Mikolajczak: Parental burnout is like any burnout. It’s an exhaustion disorder, but takes place in the parental …
Source: Humans - newscientist.com
