A tale of two cities: Chinese mothers' parental burnout and parenting behaviors in Shanghai and Nanning.

PURPOSE: Parental burnout is a psychological syndrome that develops in response to the chronic stressors in one's role as a parent. It can be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of both parents and children and has been empirically proven to result in more negative parenting behaviours. Based on recent research, parental burnout is more prevalent in individualistic cultures. Considering that parenting norms and practices vary greatly across cultures, there could be different effects of parental burnout on parenting practices in different areas. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between parental burnout and parenting behaviours in Shanghai and Nanning, two cities in China that differ in the extent to which they have been exposed to the cultural influence of Western individualism, and to examine the moderating effect of city on these relationship patterns.

METHODS

Three hundred and sixty-eight mothers in Shanghai and 180 mothers in Nanning took part in the survey.

RESULTS

On average, mothers in Shanghai had more severe parental burnout than their counterparts in Nanning. Furthermore, parental burnout was associated with positive parenting behaviours (i.e., parental warmth) and negative parenting behaviours (i.e., parental hostility and neglect), and the associations between parental burnout and negative parenting behaviours in Nanning were greater than in Shanghai.

CONCLUSIONS

These results can be explained by cultural differences in individualism and collectivism between Shanghai and Nanning. This study extends the knowledge on the role of culture in shaping parental roles.