# Parental Burnout: A Progressive Condition Potentially Compromising Family Well-Being—A Narrative Review

## TL;DR

This review explores parental burnout, its causes, effects on families, and how it varies across cultures.

## Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of parental burnout, highlighting its global impact and risk factors.

## Key findings

- Parental burnout affects both men and women and is influenced by emotional intelligence and workplace stress.
- Cultural differences significantly impact the prevalence of parental burnout across countries.
- The condition harms family dynamics and may reduce willingness to have more children.

## Abstract

Background: Parental burnout is one of today’s significant challenges, increasingly manifesting as a problem in our fast-paced world. The aim of this review is to create an exploratory, descriptive summary of parental burnout through the analysis of available international publications, providing a clearer and more accurate understanding of the psychological condition, severity, manifestations, and treatment options. Methods: Our narrative literature review includes publications from 2010 onwards, focusing on those that directly address the topic of parental burnout syndrome and contain epidemiological data, risk factors, symptoms, diagnostic possibilities, and treatment strategies. We excluded publications that examined the condition within narrow societal groups, such as parents caring for children with somatic mental disorders. Results: Based on our review, it appears that parental burnout may potentially affect both women and men. Factors such as low emotional intelligence, workplace stress, and lack of supportive family background render parents vulnerable to this condition. Significant differences in the prevalence of parental burnout can be measured between countries, due to cultural differences. Parental burnout has extremely detrimental effects on family dynamics and the emotional development of children, and it can negatively impact the willingness to have more children at the family level, which has dire consequences considering the low birth rates characteristic of European countries.