Understanding the Daily Dynamics of Parenting Stress and Burnout
Raising young children can be a wonderful but challenging experience. Some parents experience such high and lasting stress that they feel exhausted, fed up with being a parent, disconnected from their children, and unsure of their abilities as a parent. This is known as parental burnout. Although this phenomenon has recently received more attention, most studies have examined parental burnout at one point in time. Cross-sectional research can tell us more about prevalence, but limits understanding of developmental processes. Hence, we still know little about how parental burnout develops over time or it manifests in daily life.
Starting in February 2026, this project will use Experience Sampling Methods with a 10-day, 3x a day design, to investigate the moment-to-moment fluctuations in wellbeing of parents with young children (<4 years old) and the relationship to momentary parenting challenges. These innovative methods will increase the understanding of within-person fluctuations in parenting stress, exhaustion, and eventually the development of parental burnout.
More information about this study? Contact Juul Henkens via email.
