Children's problems predicted parents' mental health via parental burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of predominantly White, partnered mothers.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted families' daily lives, compromising parents', and children's well-being. From a family systems perspective, children's socioemotional difficulties may infiltrate family dynamics via increased parental burnout-a syndrome characterized by exhaustion, low self-fulfillment, and emotional distancing due to demanding childrearing-that potentially compromises a parent's mental health over time. We examined how changes in children's difficulties predicted parents' mental health via parental burnout during the first 1.5 years of the pandemic. Three hundred seventeen U.S. parents (93% mothers, 70% White, median income-per-capita: $31,250) with children ages 2-18 years (M = 7.26 years, SD = 4.08 years) participated in a three-wave, longitudinal study examining family adjustment. Parents reported on their mental health, parental burnout, and their children's difficulties. A linear latent growth curve model found significant variability in children's initial total difficulties score and significant decreases in children's difficulties over 1.5 years. In an indirect effects model, both children's high initial total difficulties and their increasing difficulties over the pandemic prospectively predicted greater parental burnout, which subsequently related to parents' greater mental health problems. Despite concerns surrounding children's adjustment, our findings suggest that children's socioemotional difficulties decreased as the pandemic continued for this sample of well-resourced families. However, parents of children who began the pandemic with many difficulties, or who had increasing difficulties, were susceptible to parental burnout and compromised mental health. Providing resources for parents of children with challenging behaviors early and throughout a health crisis may mitigate downstream impacts on parents' well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).