Empathy and parenthood: The moderating role of maternal trait empathy on parental burnout

Abstract

The ability to empathize with others enables us to effectively interact with each other and may have specifically evolved to support parental roles and caregiving. The relationship between parenting and trait empathy is little understood as previous research focused on empathy exclusively in the context of parenting, for example parental sensitivity. Here we aimed to understand how trait empathy may moderate the association between child's negative emotionality and parental burnout. Two cohorts were examined (1) parents of infants (10-18 months old; N = 203) and (2) parents of children (3-10 years old, N = 201). Parents filled out a battery of online questionnaires assessing maternal empathy, parental burnout and child temperament. We found that the relationship between higher levels of negative emotionality and parental burnout is moderated by specific aspects of maternal emotional empathy. Our findings suggest that maternal emotional empathy acts as a buffer against parental burnout when faced with a child's characteristics that incur higher parental demands.

Mother’s disintegrative responses in the context of infant care: Clinical and empirical evidence of the role of empathy and parity.

“…Nevertheless, in confirmation of Hypothesis 3, higher empathic concern was negatively related to dissociative experiences. In line with a previous finding that highlights the protective role of empathic concern when dealing with parenting-related stressors (Kadosh-Laor et al, 2023), this study shows that a mother’s ability to feel a deep connection to her infant’s experiences may protect her from emotional disconnection, reflected in fewer dissociative experiences.…”

“…The empirical study adds quantitative evidence to the clinical study, showing that mothers who tended either to feel personal distress in the face of the distress of others or to identify with fictional and fantasized characters reported more negative aspects of empathy, as well as higher levels of both intrusive thoughts and dissociative experiences, as predicted (Hypothesis 4). The association between empathy-related personal distress and higher intrusive thoughts and dissociative experiences is in line with the previous studies indicating that observers might respond with stressful and negative reactions to the distress of others (Eisenberg et al, 1991; Kadosh-Laor et al, 2023; Zamir et al, 2023). An association between personal distress and a mother’s thoughts of infant-related harm has also been found (Fairbrother et al, 2015).…”

“…A study that examined the contribution of empathy to maternal burnout among mothers of infants revealed that personal distress was associated with higher levels of burnout, whereas empathic concern was associated with lower levels of burnout. Moreover, empathy moderated the relationship between the infant’s negative emotionality and maternal burnout, so that this relationship was stronger among mothers who reported high personal distress, and weaker among those who reported high empathic concern (Kadosh-Laor et al, 2023).…”

“…Notably, most of these studies did not include the fantasy component, and those that did found that it was not related to the various outcomes measured (Boorman et al, 2019; Fairbrother et al, 2015). Thus, although there are indications that the mother’s empathic tendency is an important variable that contributes to her maternal responses, the number of studies examining this issue is limited (Boorman et al, 2019; Kadosh-Laor et al, 2023). Furthermore, except for one recent study, that examined the contribution of empathy on a background of the infant’s emotional effect on the mother (Kadosh-Laor et al, 2023), most studies did not consider the potential toll of empathy on a mother’s responses as a result of her investment in the infant’s emotional experience.…”