Association between Parent-Child Relationship and Second-Time Mother’s Prenatal Depressive Symptoms: The Mediation Role of Parenting Burnout

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this research was to study the association between the mother-firstborn relationship and second-time mothers’ prenatal depressive symptoms before the birth of a second child and the mediation role of parenting burnout on this relationship. Methods: Empirical study was adopted in this research. Using a convenient sampling method, we recruited 110 second-time mothers who were in their third trimester of pregnancy. Child-parent relationship questionnaire, parenting burnout scale, and Beck Depression Instrument were used to measure the relationship between firstborn and second-time mothers, mothers’ parenting burnout, and prenatal depressive symptoms, respectively. Regression analysis was conducted to test the relationship between variables, and the mediation effect was tested using PROCESS. Results: Regression results showed that the parent-child relationship is negatively associated with second-time mothers’ prenatal depressive symptoms. The parent-child relationship is negatively associated with parenting burnout which is positively related to prenatal depressive symptoms. When considering the mediation variable of parenting burnout, the direct effect is not statistically significant. Conclusions: Parent-child relationship has a significant impact on second-time mothers’ prenatal depressive symptoms, and this relationship is mediated by parenting burnout.

A systematic review of parental burnout and related factors among parents

“…Two researchs study on parenting burnout in infants [ 30 , 34 ], five studies [ 16 , 18 , 29 , 33 , 51 ] on parenting burnout in parents of exceptional children, one study [ 48 ] on children with diabetes and one study on kids who needed ongoing pediatric outpatient care [ 32 ]. Seventeen research included both mothers and fathers, and nine studies [ 28 , 30 , 31 , 34 , 40 – 42 , 47 , 52 ] were conducted on a sample of just mothers from the general community. The most frequently used measurement for PB was the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) with different versions, followed by the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI) [ 32 , 37 , 47 , 50 ], Parental Burnout Measure (PBM-12) [ 40 ], Burn-out Measure Short version (BMS-10) [ 41 ], Shirom-Melamed Burnout Questionnaire (SMBQ) [ 48 ], Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) [ 51 ].…”

“…For parent–child relationship, a poor parent–child relationship could result in parenting burnout, while a good parent–child relationship can positively affect parenting burnout [ 31 ]. For interpersonal factors in spouses, marital satisfaction in demographic information is related to parenting burnout [ 42 ].…”

“…The mean score of parental burnout in parents with at least a child based on PBA using the Likert 5 points [28,30,52] was 2.00 (SD = 0.80), based on PBA using the Likert 7 points [35,39,44,49] was 29.05 (SD = 19.53), based on PBS [31]was 2.15 (SD = 1.17), based on PBM-12 [40] was 28.03 (SD = 6.62) and based on PBI [47] was 3.34 (SD = 1.44).…”