Mentalization and Self-compassion as Protective Factors for Parental Burnout among Parents with Disabled Children

Abstract

Parenting is a complex and stressful activity, and parents with disabled children suffer even more stress, causing fatigue and burnout. This study aimed to investigate whether mentalization and self-compassion could protect parents from burnout among parents with disabled children and what is the prevalence of parental burnout among such parents. A total of 911 parents of children with special needs completed the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI), Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), and Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). The frequency, Chi-square, and Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) by R_v4.0.3 using the mgcv package were utilized to analyze data. Among parents with disabled children, 1.6% experienced severe burnout, while 26.8% experienced moderate burnout. In addition, mentalization and self-compassion were associated with parental burnout. Self-compassion and hyper-mentalizing were associated with less parental burnout, whereas hypo-mentalizing was associated with more burnout. Among Iranian parents who are permanent caregivers to a disabled child, self-compassion and hyper-mentalizing play protective roles, whereas hypo-mentalizing plays a risky role in parental burnout.