{"title":"Parental burnout and adolescents' self-esteem: A longitudinal study","authors":"Wei Wang, Jia Luo, Moïra Mikolajczak, Yongxin Li","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2026.101976","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Parental burnout refers to a specific syndrome resulting from a chronic imbalance of parenting demands and resources. While previous studies have examined the negative effects of parental burnout on child and adolescent development, limited research has investigated its impact on self-esteem, a critical variable for success across many domains. This study aimed to examine the effects of parental burnout on adolescents' self-esteem, as well as the mediating roles of parental neglect and violence. The study adopted a longitudinal design, collecting data at three separate time points on primary caregivers' parental burnout, adolescents' perceptions of parental neglect and violence, and adolescents' self-esteem levels. Participants were students from a middle school in central China and their primary caregivers (<em>n</em> = 118). Results from cross-lagged model revealed that parental burnout indirectly influenced adolescents' self-esteem through neglect (indirect effect = −0.03, <em>SE</em> = 0.02, <em>p</em> = .01). However, the mediating effect of violence was not significant. This study enriches research on the consequences of parental burnout and provides further evidence on how parental behavior shapes adolescents' self-esteem.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"105 ","pages":"Article 101976"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193397326000547","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/6/18 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Parental burnout refers to a specific syndrome resulting from a chronic imbalance of parenting demands and resources. While previous studies have examined the negative effects of parental burnout on child and adolescent development, limited research has investigated its impact on self-esteem, a critical variable for success across many domains. This study aimed to examine the effects of parental burnout on adolescents' self-esteem, as well as the mediating roles of parental neglect and violence. The study adopted a longitudinal design, collecting data at three separate time points on primary caregivers' parental burnout, adolescents' perceptions of parental neglect and violence, and adolescents' self-esteem levels. Participants were students from a middle school in central China and their primary caregivers (n = 118). Results from cross-lagged model revealed that parental burnout indirectly influenced adolescents' self-esteem through neglect (indirect effect = −0.03, SE = 0.02, p = .01). However, the mediating effect of violence was not significant. This study enriches research on the consequences of parental burnout and provides further evidence on how parental behavior shapes adolescents' self-esteem.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology focuses on two key concepts: human development, which refers to the psychological transformations and modifications that occur during the life cycle and influence an individual behavior within the social milieu; and application of knowledge, which is derived from investigating variables in the developmental process. Its contributions cover research that deals with traditional life span markets (age, social roles, biological status, environmental variables) and broadens the scopes of study to include variables that promote understanding of psychological processes and their onset and development within the life span. Most importantly.