Parental burnout and parent–child relationship: the role of harsh parenting in couples

Parental burnout is a prominent topic in current family research, with proven detrimental effects on the well-being of both parents and children. However, the specific mechanism by which parenting burnout impacts the parent-child relationship within families remains unclear. Furthermore, there is limited research exploring whether parenting burnout has a direct impact on the parent-child relationship. This study aims to address this gap by constructing an actor-partner interdependent mediation model of parental harsh parenting in order to explore the influence of parents' own and their spouse's parenting burnout on their respective parent-child relationships, as well as the mediating effect of their own harsh parenting and that of their spouse. A convenient sampling method was used to select 405 parents from two middle schools in Yichun, Heilongjiang Province as participants for this investigation. The Chinese version of the Parenting Burnout Inventory, Harsh Parenting Scale, and Parent-child Relationship Scale were utilized for data collection over half year period. The findings revealed that (1) parenting burnout significantly negatively predicts both one's own and one's spouse's parent-child relationships; (2) parenting burnout affects one's own parent-child relationship through their own harsh parenting; (3) parenting burnout influences one's spouse's parent-child relationship through their spouse's harsh parenting. This study sheds light on the influence and mechanisms underlying parental burnout on the parent-child relationship, offering valuable insights for preventing parental burnout and enhancing family dynamics.